Gundam Seed: Sea of Stars
by sasahara17
Summary: CE 76 A dead last ZAFT mobile suit cadet is swept up in a sqeuence of events that have been thousands of years in the making. Heavy OC and OOC warning, Mature Themes and Multiple Crossovers.
1. Sea of Stars

Disclaimer; 

_I do not own the Gundam Franchise or the Super Robot Wars Franchise. They belong to Sunrise and Banpresto respectively. I do not aim to profit of the use of their intellectual property by using their characters, worlds or mechanized killing machines, only to use those characters to fuel their raging fan base and thus generate more profit from THEM when they next release their next game/anime._

_The Soukou no Strain character Lavina Rebirth and 'Takaya' Nono from DieBuster! Do not belong to me, they belong to their respective owners."_

_Warning! This story features overpowered "Super Robots" and Hot-blooded Antics in a "Real" Universe. If you wish for your image of the CE timeline to not have a machine that can cleave an entire armada in a single swing, please stop reading and flee for your life. I've been watching too much Gurren Lagann and Getter Robo for this story to be sane._

_Please Read and Review, but no flames please. As much as burning flames of righteous passion are cool, I'm highly flammable. So no flames please. Constructive criticism is welcome though._

* * *

Chapter 001/ Sea of Stars_

* * *

_

CE 70…

"Look Sean! It's a shooting star!"

The young girl pointed up into the vast darkness that was the night sky as a streak of white shot through the darkness. The young boy's features lit up in amazement as he too noted the rare occurrence.

Atop a flower covered hill, a young girl and a young boy lay beside each other, gazing into the heavens. Barely fifteen years old each, the two childhood friends were enjoying a "self prepared" camping excursion with each other to celebrate their mutual birthday; away from his overbearing parents and the worries of her working class life.

The cool summer's night and the magical silence of the night protected the magical of their moment. Here the young natural girl and the coordinator boy could revel in the innocence of their childhood, protected from the prejudices and hardships of the world.

"So Sean, what did you wish for?" the girl asked. "If you wish upon a falling star, that wish would be fulfilled, so what did you wish for?"

"I wasn't fast enough." Sean smiled sadly. He wasn't fast enough… he was never fast enough. Trying not to let his melancholy show on his face, if only to avoid his best friend lecturing him about his lot in life, Sean responded immediately. "How about you, what did you wish for?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

The girl pulled herself to her feet. Arms spread wide to the starry sky as if to emphasize her point and her golden eyes twinkling with excitement, Sakura proudly declared to the entire world…

"I'm going to fly through space!"

Sean did a double take. "What? Coming from the five time junior national kendo champion?"

Sakura tapped her bokken on the ground, always never too far from her side, on the ground threateningly. "I'm being serious here!" Sean held up his arms defensively. Sakura continued.

"I'm going to fly through that sea of stars someday! I'm going to fly from star to star, exploring the galaxy, no the universe, to my hearts content. No restrictions, no boundaries, nothing to hold us back!" She proudly declared.

Sean blinked at her words before pulling himself up. "Us? As in… you and me?"

Sakura huffed in annoyance as if insulted that her friend could think of even such a thing. "Of course! Who else? Is there any other person that would be my partner?"

Sean shook his head. "No… I'm sorry. For someone like me, that's just an impossible - OW!" Sakura had smacked him on the head with her bokken in annoyance.

"No buts. We're flying through that sea of stars together, and that's a promise!" Sakura lifted her wooden sword into the air as if to hold him to ransom. Sean flinched, believing for a second that Sakura had somehow slid into one of her moods again.

"I don't care if you're the shame of the Branstein family. Once you get out into space, no one is going to care! Not your father… not your entire family… not even those stupid politicians who keep saying that coordinators and naturals are two different races!"

Sakura lowered her bokken, a slight tearing in her eyes and the softening in her expression.

"It will be just us. We don't have to worry about your parents" expectations or that racist drivel of our classmates every day. Just us. You and me. And the endless possibilities. Total freedom. We can go wherever we want…"

Sean sighed. "You've been spending too much time around your brother again haven"t you?"

The effect this statement had on Sakura was instantaneous. "No I haven't! Kamina"s been too busy to talk to me! He's either been working on that stupid "Astray Project" of his, hitting the pubs or chatting up that Erica woman to care about my welfare! Who the hell does he think he… opps."

"I'll take that as a yes." Sean smirked as Sakura almost said the very statement the older Nakagawa was infamous for spouting. Sakura pouted sourly.

"Okay, maybe I've been watching him work on his stupid robot for a bit." Sakura grudgingly admitted. Sean burst into laughter. "Hey that's not funny!" Sakura declared as she pounced on him.

"Sorry, sorry…" Sean laughed as they rolled around on the bed of flowers. After a few moments of wrestling each other playfully, they rolled to a stop as they lay breathlessly beside each other. Breathing hard, the two friend once again gazed into the heavens.

Then it happened.

"I was serious about wanting to explore the universe." Sakura stated clearly.

"I know." Sean responded. "But you know its impossible right? Even with the recent leaps in nuclear technology and the colonization of the earth sphere, we"re no where close to having the technology to…"

Sean almost had a heat attack when she suddenly rolled onto him. Her face no more than inches from his and her golden orbs boring into his onyx ones. Her long waist length dyed pink locks fell like a curtain to block out his peripheral view. The bodily contact between them was sending his senses into overdrive.

It was the first time in the fourteen years he had known Sakura Nakagawa that Sean Raymond Branstein realized his best friend was in actual fact, a girl.

"You know that's never bothered me before." Sakura whispered.

"Kick reality to the curb and go to the limit, eh?" Sean quoted her older brother word for word, his mind still reeling from her closeness. In fact his body was responding in a way he _really _didn"t want it to.

A slightly amused and embarrassed grin graced her features. "….you pervert." Sean cold only blush with embarrassment at the revelation that she had noticed his biological response.

"Sorry…" Sean nervously replied.

"Stop apologizing." Sakura stated. "You always are apologizing for things you shouldn't. I rolled onto you didn't I?" Sean hesitantly nodded. "This is why I can't leave you alone. Who's going to stand you for you if you're such a pushover all the time?"

"Is that the reason why you're going to drag me along on your joyride among the stars?" Sean said. Sakura smiled.

"Among other things." She kissed him.

It was a few moments later when Sakura pulled away that she noticed her best friend had fainted from the shock. "Oh well." She sighed with contentment, "It"s just like him to do that." She snuggled up to his unconscious body under the sea of stars, and all was right in their world.

On that day, under the starry sky on a bed of flowers, two childhood sweethearts made a solemn promise. They would journey together across the vast sea of stars, to find a place without any restrictions or boundaries would hold them back. A promise that was sealed with a kiss.

_

* * *

_

_To be honest I was inspired by hanging around /m/ on 4-chan too much and reading another SRW OGs crossover by an author whom I can't remember. The name was "Sword that Cleaves Evil" I think. Although it was good, I was a bit miffed that its lead character Elzam Zormvolt was an ace coordinator in his teens, which is I my opinion incredibly cliché. _

_But then again, all my OCs are generally "localized imports" from OGs. So " guess I am worse than being cliché. I'm downright plagiarizing characters! I might as well be Harmony Gold splicing Macross to form Robotech. But hopefully, like Robotech, this story won't completely suck._

_Given the recent influx of SRW OG crossovers on I decided that I'd do a more "subtle" crossover instead. If anyone has watched Turn A, you probably know how I'm going to do this._

_Just a couple of notes; beware of spoilers. I suck at keeping secrets._

_+ Sakura Nakagawa was based on the character Katsura Hanagiku from Hayate the Combat Butler. Except of course, the dyed hair. She is a natural as opposed to Sean, who is a coordinator._

_+ Sean's looks are based on the character Shoji what"s-his-name from Fafner of the Azure._

_+ Yes, Sakura's brother acts exactly like Kamina from Tenga Toppan Gurren Lagann, down to his iconic catchphrase and sunglasses. He works on the prototype M1-Astray and is wooing Erica Simmons. He also hides a dark secret and is a master at various forms of swordsmanship._

_+ It may not look like it, but Sakura is a semi-OC, a canon character that has yet to assume that role (i.e. Casval before he became Char). Three guesses who she is once the hair dye goes away. It's not that hard._

_+ As coordinators seemed so overpowered in the SEED universe, I thought it would be good to have a coordinator who has to work his ass off to do something worthwhile for once._

_+ Sean is a rare "dud" 1st generation coordinator, a coordinator who turned out less than perfect in that he is and always be physically wreaker than the average human being._

_One final not; I need a BETA reader! I absolutely suck at proof reading my own stuff. Also, I originally planned this story as a three part series, but as it stands the first part is so devoid of mecha action that's I've decided to kick it off at the second act and only revisit the first in flashbacks. _

_If I get enough motivation, maybe I'll go back and draw it up after I finish the thing, "Star Wars" style._

_27/7/07. Oh dear, I just noticed that the speech indicators were all wrong. And here I was weeding out speeling and gramar errors. Well it's fixed now._

_Preview! (not that you need it, it should be up already)_

""I guess that is to be expected of you Miss Westenfluss! Miss Silver Shooting Star manages to make another spectacle again!"

_Okay, au revouir… not!_


	2. Endless Waltz I

Disclaimer;

_I do not own the Gundam Franchise or the Super Robot Wars Franchise. They belong to Sunrise and Banpresto respectively. I do not aim to profit of the use of their intellectual property by using their characters, worlds or mechanized killing machines, only to use those characters to fuel their raging fan base and thus generate more profit from THEM when they next release their next game/anime._

_The Soukou no Strain character Lavina Rebirth and 'Takaya' Nono from DieBuster! Do not belong to me, they belong to their respective owners."_

_Warning! This story features overpowered 'Super Robots' and Hot-blooded Antics in a 'Real' Universe. If you wish for your image of the CE timeline to not have a machine that can cleave an entire armada in a single swing, please stop reading and flee for your life. I"ve been watching too much Gurren Lagann and Getter Robo for this story to be sane._

_Please Read and Review, but no flames please. As much as burning flames of righteous passion are cool, I'm highly flammable. So no flames please. Constructive criticism welcome_

* * *

Chapter 002/ Endless Waltz I 

_This should be upped at around the same time as the Prologue. Still more introduction, but since Shiho makes a cameo, I guess it's better than the dorky prologue._

* * *

CE 76, Aprillius Nine 

"Last… I'm LAST?"

Samantha Douglas Westenfluss could scarcely believe her eyes. She had just shown up at the academy first thing in the morning when she was it. Standing slack jawed at the bulletin board in the cantina surrounded by dozens of giggling students, Samantha was so shocked humiliation and embarrassment forgot to even kick in.

Samantha was short for her age. Her messy dark orange hair was tied into a single pony tail, with her sideburns which were dinged by black dye hung freely. Her wide violet eyes spoke of both innocence and idealism. While quite beautiful by natural standards, her features were considered plain by most coordinator women. She wore a traditional ZAFT green coat uniform. A quite unremarkable person by most standards.

And her body proportions were… less than impressive. Flat as a board was one phrase that was often used to describe her.

On the scoreboard for the ZAFT pilot academy Aprillius Nine she was not only listed as the worst scoring pilot of her class, but someone had the gall to put a stick next to her name claiming that according to the record books, she was the WORST scoring pilot ever to attend the academy of all time.

"I guess that is to be expected of you Miss Westenfluss! Miss Silver Shooting Stars manages to make another spectacle again!"

"I guess that's not surprising from a person who manages to get shot down after every sortie!"

"Yeah, she falls out of the sky in a blaze of glory every single time, it's almost hysterical!"

"I hear she even got special attention from Colonel Hanenfuss and Lieutenant Westenfluss. And she still go blown out of the sky? My goodness, why do they even keep her in the academy in the fist place? Oh I know, "because she's a Westenfluss…"

Samantha finally felt the heat rise to her cheeks. Her small stature was shivering as the embarrassment and humiliation finally set in. It was true. Even with all the additional tutoring she was given, Samantha still was shot down for every simulated engagement. It was borderline ridiculous. What would her father say when he saw this?

Samantha gripped the hem of her green uniform in humiliation. Her violet eyes were beginning to tear.

"Hey break it up you people."

The delighted murmuring of the crowd suddenly came to an abrupt halt. Lieutenant Alexia Leona Westenfluss strode into the crowd wearing a very serious expression.

Her red "elite" coat in pristine condition, her cherry red hair tied into a neat bun, Alexia was fuming at the sight of her wee little sister being humiliated.

"Hey L.T., we were just having a bit of fun." The speaker of those words, one cadet Veronica Garstein incidentally the best of her class and the ringleader of many a ragging on Miss Shooting Star, instantly regretted those words.

Alexia's glare was feared for good reason. During the second bloody valentine war, she was known as the "Blood Red Shadow" for her exploits in the South American theatre. She was feared for two reasons; her kill score and her ability to scare any of her subordinates, and the occasional superior, into submission with a single glance.

Now that she had retired to become a flight instructor, her students were experiencing firsthand why she was so feared.

It took a monumental feat of will for Veronica not to beak down into a sobbing wreck from Alexia's sharp gaze. "You. Ten laps around the base. Effective now."

"YES MA"AM!" Veronica was off. The majority of the crowd wisely dispersed now that they knew how serious the Lieutenant was, leaving the furious redcoat and her humiliated cadet little sister in the empty cafeteria.

"Kids these days… I hope this isn't the best ZAFT has to offer. We'd rot from the inside out with people like them before anyone even fires a single shot at us." Alexia growled before turning to her younger sister. "Hey Sam, you alright."

Samantha bit down a sniffle and smiled weakly at her sister. "Yeah, just peachy Sis."

Alexia, always the sharp one, knew that the whole ordeal had probably greatly upset her sister. An idea hit the older Westenfluss, and Alexia acted on it.

"Hey, Sam. Wit looks like you haven't had breakfast today. Since we have some time before the live piloting exercise, do you wanna go have a bit to eat?" Alexis winked at her younger sister. "My treat."

"It's okay Alex. I caused you enough trouble for today." Samantha waved her older sibling off.

"Not even if my fiancé is going to be there?"

Samantha actually paused when she heard this. "Sean is on Aprillius Nine?" Her heart was doing flip flops in her stomach. Where some girls would obsess over pop idols or hot actors, Samantha was a huge fan of ace pilots of the two conflicts; like the famous Arthrun Zala or the legendary Kira Yamato. However, there was one pilot she revered over them all.

Sean Raymond Branstein, better known as the Black Hurricane, was one of ORB"s lesser known aces of the second bloody valentine conflict. Cutting his ties from the illustrious Branstein family for some unknown reason, the young man struck out on his own and joined the ORB Defense Force.

Assigned to some backwater station in Antarctica because of being a coordinator by the Serians, he made a formidable eighty seven kills when the base suddenly came under attack by Phantom Pain in an attempt to steal parts to a prototype mobile suit; a mobile suit which eventually turned out to be the Strike Freedom Gundam.

though it was a heated debate between many military analysts whether the feared Phantom"s Bane, 'the Black Hurricane' could have become more famous had he been assigned to the front lines, it was still a clear fact that he was lagging behind the other aces; Kira Yamato, Shin Asuka and even her deceased brother Heine each individually had at least twice as many kills as Sean.

Thus at first glance it was hard to see why she revered him so… In actual fact, the answer was simple.

Sean Raymond Branstein was the youngest 'failed coordinator' alive; a coordinator that, while incredibly intelligent and smart like most other coordinators, was physically weaker than the average natural person. Only six such humans existed in the entire earth sphere, and the other five were supposed to be very much unemployed. For someone like him to come so far was a true inspiration to her.

On top of that he looked HOT. Long flowing blonde hair, flawless complexion, a smile to die for, Samantha truly envied her sister for being able to marry such a man. True it was an arranged marriage between the Westenfluss family and the Branstein family, which Sean had finally reconciled with, but had Alexis not accepted the marriage proposal Samantha sure as hell would have!

"…Sam? You spaced out and there are stars in your eyes. Are you okay?" A hand waved in front of Samantha's eyes which startled the poor cadet.

"Breakfast? Oh yeah I"ll go." Samantha stammered.

"That's my girl." Alexis smiled warmly and pat her beloved younger sister on the back. "and by the way, there's drool coming out of your mouth."

* * *

Elsewhere on the colony, a very different conversation was occurring. Deep in the darkest parts of the space colony, a hushed meeting between shadowed figures was taking place. 

"We can't use this." The first person, a woman in her early twenties stated.

The leader of her small group, she was an imposing figure. Her neat shoulder length dark blue hair with streaks of white locks in between was braided securely to avoid it getting in her way. Her mismatched orbs had a haunted look to them; a pale yellow iris in her right eye, which oddly had a dilated pupil, and a crimson red pupil in her left, which was adored by a large vertical bun scar that almost touched the base of her cheek. Interestingly enough, she wore a pair of square lens glasses with a faded pink rim, a relic of old times past.

Her white jacket and jeans which were worn over a dark grey turtleneck shirt had black decals on them, notable the intricate crossed gun and sword over shield insignia on the sleeve which had the word "Assault-1" emblazoned on it. She also wore what seemed to be black leather gloves that reached far under her sleeve.

Finally the sheathed ornate white and gold katana, which lacked a guard, she openly wore at her side was by far her most intimidating feature.

She jabbed her thumb over her shoulder at the large mobile suit that lay on the transport trailer behind her. "The suit we need is a replacement for an outdated suit we've been using for four years now. The pilot uses an MTS, so a standard twin joystick configuration isn't going to cut it."

The broker sighed. "Hey you said you wanted the best A.E. had to offer and, well, this is it."

"It's no good if we can't use it." The woman said crossly.

"Actually Major, I think we can." the voice of her teammate who was inspecting the war machine up close sated clearly. "You may not be able to use it, but let me and Ariel gave a go at it first. I've looked through the specs on this thing and it's nothing to laugh at."

The second member of her group was dressed in a similar white jacket and pants, except with turquoise and cyan colorings instead. His insignia was similar to his commanding officer's except the words emblazoned on his insignia were "Assault-2" instead of "Assault-1." A blue bandanna was tried around his forehead that kept his short messy brown hair out of his eyes. His wide Prussian blue eyes spoke of experience and wisdom that few alive ever attain.

He also happened to be the ripe old age of thirteen years old.

"This thing is a real monster. I've never seen a propulsion system of this type before. And even if we can't use it, Marty here could take it apart and we'd have some fine parts to go around."

Marty, the last member of their team, gave thumbs up to emphasize that point.

Fiery red hair under his yellow "Eden Angels" baseball cap and dressed in a stained light green jumpsuit, Marty was not much older than his comrade was, only fifteen to the other boy's thirteen.

"Fine." The major decided. "How much is this thing?"

The broker dismissed her words with a wave of his hand. "Oh don't worry about price. Captain Yashima is an old friend of ours. We owed him a couple, so consider it repayment of a favor." The major just cocked an eyebrow skeptically at the broker before turning away to issue orders.

"Chris, Martin, get the trailer moving back to the shuttle. We leave in the hour." The two boys immediately began making preparations for departure.

"Quite cautious for someone who hasn't been in the Earth Sphere for almost five years aren"t you, Major Katsura?" The broker mused before slipping away.

Major Shoko Katsura didn't even bother to acknowledge he was gone.

Nor did she notice the hidden telescopic camera record their exchange from over three kilometers away…

* * *

Samantha almost collapsed in excitement when she saw a casually dressed blonde man waving at them from the popular café Madison's. Of course, when she noticed her idol was sitting across her base commander Shiho Hahnenfuss, Samantha's spirits dampened considerably. 

What if the Colonel told him what a dunce she was? He'd never take her seriously ever!

"Alexis! Samantha! Over here." Sean called over to them. Still in uniform, Alexis" wine red coat of a ZAFT top gun stood out among the crowd. Sean quickly got up and pulled a seat for his fiancé leaving Samantha was slightly envious of the treatment the ORB pilot was giving her sister. Hot and chivalrous to the boot.

"Colonel, Sean, good morning." Alexis politely saluted before seating herself down beside her soon to be husband. She was also trying her hardest not to giggle at the sight of her superior.

Shiho Hahnenfuss shook her head politely. "This is strictly an informal meeting between friends."

The former CGUE DEEP Arms pilot was also causally dressed, wearing of all things the pale blue sundress that her boyfriend, one councilor Yzak Joule, had given her for Valentines day.

"You know each other?" Alexis said with a hint of surprise. Samantha quietly took a seat across her sister, shooting shy glances at the other people at the table.

"Know each other? Me and young master Branstein here go way back." Shiho chuckled. "Alexis, you may be a bit surprised to hear this, but I was once engaged to this dolt."

Alexis" jaw dropped. "That was you?" Shiho could only burst into fists of laughter at the rare sight of the Blood Red Shadow's stunned expression.

"Yeah, I fought the engagement tooth and nail. Still, it worked out in the end didn't it?" Sean smirked nostalgically at the memory of him arguing with his parents on the matter, one of the catalysts form him finally riding out of the Branstein ancestral home on his horse "Trombe". "So is this the Silver Shooting Star I've been hearing so much about?"

Samantha's already pale complexion went star white at the sound of her less than favorable nickname. Suddenly the hem of her skirt seemed really interesting. So interesting that Samantha kept her eyes glued to the ZAFT emblem at its base.

"Um, Sean, maybe it's not a good idea that you call her that." Alexia pointed out. Sean grinned sheepishly when he realized that the cadet was more sensitive than ever her headmaster let on.

"May I take you orders, sir and madams?" A waiter asked. Thankful for the brief respite, Samantha ordered a single glass of water, too timid to order anything else. Retreating into her own world, the sixteen year old girl tried her hardest not to look.

The other three people at the table laughed and talked of old adventures past, a world she had no place to be in.

She was sitting at the same table as three of the best pilots of the Bloody Valentine wars. Part of her was elated, it was like she won the lottery; a dream come true. Another part of her felt the weight of their presence looming over her. They were Housenka, the Blood Red Shadow and the Blake Hurricane. She?

Samantha Douglas Westernfuss.

Little Miss Silver Shooting Star.

Falls like a comet out of the sky. Every. Single. Time.

Her dream never looked so far away.

Samantha was so engrossed in her musings that she had not noticed a plate of her favorite dessert, cookies and cream cheesecake with two strawberries on the top, had somehow would up on the table in front of her. "I was told you like this."

A slight "eep!" broke the young coordinator out of her reverie. It was then that Samantha realized that while she was out of it, breakfast had come and gone. Gone so long that her sister and Shiho had taken off somewhere, leaving her with her dreamboat idol.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Samantha knew her sister had planned this from the very start. "I'm surprised. Cookies and cream cheese cake. I thought someone from the Westernfuss family would have something more exotic."

"Wha… ah!" Samantha instantly went red as a cherry upon seeing his amused smile. She tried to stammer out a response to the older man, but her futile efforts merely fueled his amusement.

"You're quite timid aren't you?"

"It's such an honor to be in your presence Mr. Tornado!" Oh god. Did she say what she thought she said? Somebody shoot her now. She even got his nickname wrong!

Sean tried his hardest not to laugh. "Sammy" was even worse than Shiho and Alexia made her out to be. Serious problems in confidence. And he was supposed to give her a prep talk. Right. He wondered why Shiho seemed so insistent he talk to this girl. Something about her dream?

"Hey, calm down Sam… may I call you Sam? I just want to talk."

"Y…Yes! It would be an honor Mr. Cyclone, SIR!"

Sean chose to ignore that. "I think it's going to be quite interesting for me to have you as my sister in law." Samantha was reduced to senseless babbling at those words. What a load of nerves. "Really now, I'm just you sister's fiancé. There's no need for you to get so hyped up about everything."

"But you're the Black Hurricane! You scored over eighty kills against the EA"s elite phantom pain unit in just a regular Murasame!" At least she got his name right this time.

"Hey, at the end of the day I'm a human being just like yourself. I'm sure that one day you'll be just as good as me." It was only after the last syllable rolled off his tongue did Sean remember Samantha's reputation in the pilot academy. Samantha instantly became somber and despondent as if remembering her own perceived self worth or lack thereof.

She can't be THAT bad, can she?

"Mr. Branstein, I think you misunderstand the situation." Samantha tried to steady her voice. "I"m a very bad pilot. Colonel Hahnenfuss had to pull every string she had to stop me from being thrown out of the academy. She even tried to give me some private one on one, but even that…" Samantha's mind flew back to that scoreboard she had just seen. "I'm sorry; I'm not normally like this…"

"Shiho spoke very highly of you." Sean informed the teenager. "She likes your drive. For all the time I've known Shiho, very few people have ever managed to get that kind of respect from her." Perhaps he was hoping that those words would set her mind at ease.

Samantha smiled sadly. "It just hurts sometimes."

Sean could sympathize with her. For much of his life, his family looked at him with a mix of pity and disdain. They were one of the ruling families of the ZAT council, yet their firstborn son was so weak he passed out the first time he flew in a shuttle. Were it not for the Nakagawas", Sean probably would have given up on life a long time ago.

"So what made you join the academy? I know your sister joined because she wanted to protect PLANT along with Heine, but how about you? You don't look like the military person type. By the way, you better eat that cheese cake."

Samantha bit into a mouthful of her favorite dessert. As the sweet taste of the cake entered her mouth, Samantha could feel her day getting better already. She could feel the humiliation and depressive feelings sliding away under the taste of sweet goodness.

"To be honest, all I wanted was to get a C-Class Mobile Suit license."

That caught Sean"s interest. "A C-Class Mobile suit license? I can see why you would want to join ZAFT then, it's the fastest was to get a C-Class license. But whatever would you want it for?"

Samantha debated whether or not to tell him. After all her life's dream, no… ambition, was ridiculous for most standards. Most of those who learned about it thought she was chasing a pipe dream. Even Alexia, before realizing how serious Samantha was, often made fun of her about it.

Samantha eventually settled on yes.

"I was hoping to join the DSSD's Stargazer II project after I graduate."

"The Stargazer II? Going from a military academy straight to a civilian research corporation?" Sean said. However an odd feeling began to well in his stomach, like a nagging feeling that refused to go away. Thinking back to Shiho's words, the pieces of the puzzle fell together. Sean knew what her dream was. So this was why Shiho was so interested in the girl. "You want to be an explorer."

Samantha nodded her head silently, slight relived he wasn't looking at her like she had grown another head. "I was hoping to I'd get to fly a manned mobile suit into deep space."

It was common knowledge that due to a Phantom Pain attack, the original Stargazer project had ended in disaster, with many of the research team killed and its test pilot dead.

The recovery of the bodies of Selene McGriff and one of the Phantom Pain pilots was widely thought to have proved beyond a doubt that manned space travel across the cosmos was a foolhardy undertaking; the inability of a life support system would kill its passenger long before they even left the solar system. McGriff"s death was taken as a warning to all would be Star Trackers.

Humanity was simply not ready yet.

After the incident and due to overwhelming public backlash, the DSSD cut the funding to all manned space travel projects, instead choosing to focus on unmanned probes. The general public thought it suicide for anything more. Any who tried to argue otherwise were thought to be a tad crazy. Who aimed for the stars when Mars wasn't even colonized yet?

Manned space travel was thought to be, at present, only a far off dream.

Yet there were still some who dreamt.

Just like Samantha Westernfuss.

Just like Sakura.

"Please don't think I'm being stupid." Samantha quietly begged. "My parents tried to talk me out of it dozens of times." Indeed, choosing to follow what many consisted to be a pipe dream over a "promising" military career was quite foolish my most standards.

"I don't think you are stupid." Sean responded. "It's quite an admirable dream really. Many people used to have that dream too. It's not going to be easy though, with the Stargazer II being an unmanned mobile suit after all."

Samantha actually bylined in surprise. "You… approve?" She was genuinely surprised. Even Shiho, her instructor, had tried talking her out of it several times. It was after all, her parents had already reserved a spot in some Canadian Test pilot facility, rising though the ranks would be a simple thing for her to do.

"Of course." Sean immediately clamped down on the rising feelings of regret, guilt and sadness that constantly swirled beneath his calm exterior. That hopeful expression, the slight twinkle in her eyes… Shiho was right for him to see this girl.

"If man did not dare to dream, would we as a civilization have gotten to where we were today? We have had many great pioneers in our history as a race. The discovery of the new world, the colonization of space… all great discoveries need their explorers my friend. Admiral Chang Ho, Christopher Columbus, the Sputnik, Neil Armstrong, George Glenn… all dared to brave the unknown and venture beyond the limits of what most consider the norm."

"Frankly, I was of the opinion that the DSSD had made a huge mistake when they bowed to public opinion and scrapped their manned space fight projects. Maybe somebody died. Maybe we really aren't ready for this yet, leaving the Earth sphere. But you never know…"

"…until you truly see what's out there." Samantha finished. By this point, Samantha's eyes had begun sparkling with delight at the thought of finally finding someone who not only approved but actually endorsed her ambition was startling.

Sean blinked. How did she…? He was actually quoting from a long departed friend of his, yet somehow… "I guess you understand then."

"Its my dream. It's like you said; there's no way I can fly through that sea of stars if I don't try!" Sean almost choked on his cup of coffee when Samantha said this. Sea of Stars…

"_I'm going to fly through that sea of stars someday!"_

It was a term that he had some to so associate with the precious memories in his mind.

The watch on Samantha's wrist began beeping. Suddenly her eyes shot open in panic. "Oh no! My class starts in ten minutes!" She bolted upright, sending her metal chair crashing to the floor. "Oops! Uh, sorry. Mr. Branstein, thank you for you time, but I really have to hurry! Goodbye!"

Samantha took off like a bat out of hell back to the base, all the while muttering that she was late and curing she stupidity. She left a stunned Sean Branstein in her wake.

"Sir, will you be paying the bill?" the waiter asked.

"In a moment." Sean whispered. In his eyes, he was no longer watching a orange haired girl in a green coat run into the distance, but a pink haired girl in a red turtleneck and pale blue jeans he had come to so miss in his dreams…

* * *

It was sometime later when the price of accepting the new machine became apparent. 

"I knew that had to be a catch." Shoko cursed under her breadth. Standing right next to the airlock to a shuttle, their shuttle, were two AE scientists in the distinctive blue and white AE spacesuits. She should have known Taylor would have pulled something like this.

Marty sighed beside her in the driver's seat of the transport that they were suing to move the suit. "I guess we got straddled with another prototype again." Now he couldn't strip it down for parts if he wanted to. Damn scientists and their crazy experimental robots.

"At least that explains why I've never seen that propulsion system before." Chris commented from the back, not as annoyed as his companions by the realization that they would have to baby-sit some billion dollar porcelain doll.

The large transport slowed to a stop outside the docking bay, Shoko hopped out of the vehicle and pushed herself off the transport over to the two waiting AE engineers.

"Ara, ara… You're ahead of schedule. We didn't expect you here for another forty minutes."

"This is their colony. I'm not staying here any longer than I absolutely have to." Shoko explained swiftly. "Now let me ask you a question; who the hell are you two?"

The light orange haired woman smiled warmly. "I'm You Presty and this is…"

"Takeshi Presty." The man finished and held a hand out to Shoko. "Head of Project True Odyssey. Tsugumi is my assistant and my wife. I'm pleased to finally meet your acquaintance Major Katsura."

Shoko shook is had, although she was none too happy about the prospect of having him come aboard. "You do know that my unit's current mission is a combat intensive one don't you?" Perhaps this was a weak attempt on her part to warn the engineer know that his project wouldn't go unscathed if he were to continue on his present course. They were still on the colony, so maybe he'd turn back. "If we get into a fight, I cannot guarantee you, your team or your machine's safety."

Takeshi smiled. "That, my dear Major, a fight… is precisely what I was looking for."

_

* * *

_

_+ Samantha Douglas Westernfuss is of course, a near carbon copy of one Ibis Douglas, my second favorite OG character… the first being Episode 30/37 himself. And yes, she is Heine"s little sister. Like I said, I'm tired of super Mary Sue coordinators and want one who can"t help BUT screw up on a regular basis._

_+ Sean is of course, 'Trombe!'. I've split Ratsel and Elzam into two different characters, so Sean will be more of the cool headed veteran ala Raidiese.  
_

_+ Shoko Katsura… can't reveal too much about her, but if any self respecting mecha fan should already know whom I based her character. She does the CLEAVING in the next chapter._

_+ Chris Heartily… another character that I cannot reveal too much about. But just so you know, his theme song is "Kotetsu no Beowulf", and I based his character on FMP's Sagara Souske. No, he does NOT pilot the AltEisen, as much as I want him to. Besides, the replacement mech I've chosen for him is equally as badass, but never got enough screen time in its source material in my opinion._

_+ Yes, that is the symbol of awesomeness that is on their jackets. _

_+ You and Takeshi are a Tsugumi and Filio who managed to get hitched. Their names come from another couple I like a lot, Takeshi and You (as opposed to Takeshi and Tsugumi) from Ever 17._

_+ Project True Odyssey is generally Project Terrestrial Dream with a different name and a nod to the Gundam Game of the same name._

_+ A.E. is… do I really need to tell you? How many companies develop mobile suits that kick serious ass with the initials A.E.?_

_+ First Arc info; Shiho and Sakura met at the Olympics on PLANT where they had a Kendo match. Sakura just barely won, a rare case of a natural triumphing over a coordinator. Hence how they knew each other and how Shiho knew of Sakura's dream.._

_+ Edit, I changed the description of Shoko's blade when further research showed that a hiltless sword would be technically unweildable since it lacked a pommel and grip. The correct term has now been effected, many apologies._

_ + Edit, changed the description of Shoko's scar to fit continuity  
_

_Preview;_

"Waga Zankanto ni… Tatenu mono Nashi…!"


	3. Endless Waltz II

Disclaimer; 

_I do not own the Gundam Franchise or the Super Robot Wars Franchise. They belong to Sunrise and Banpresto respectively. I do not aim to profit of the use of their intellectual property by using their characters, worlds or mechanized killing machines, only to use those characters to fuel their raging fan base and thus generate more profit from THEM when they next release their next game/anime._

_The Soukou no Strain character Lavina Rebirth and 'Takaya' Nono from DieBuster! Do not belong to me, they belong to their respective owners."_

_Please Read and Review, but no flames please. As much as burning flames of righteous passion are cool, I'm highly flammable. So no flames please. Constructive criticism welcome_

… _do I have to put this up every chapter? Most other authors don't seem to do so…_

_

* * *

_

_**DreamersLTD -** It's nice to see someone with a similar story review mine. Soon after posting this, I actually discovered your story existed. I liked it, so much so I'm actually a little concerned that our two stories may turn out too similar to each other given your story's title and the massive role Turn A Gundam plays in mine that I may end up ruining the novelty these kind of stories possess. I'll take your suggestion and make my chapters a little longer in the future._

_BTW, since you compared Ibis to Sakura and not Samantha, I assume I was successful in creating the parallel in their lives I was aiming for. And I'm sorry, Sakura ends up losing people. Lots of people. _

_Oddly, enough, I never meant for Sakura to be the Shooting Star, just a parallel to her. It was a typo on the first chapter, in that Samantha, the actual Silver Shooting Star, was to be introduced in the following chapter. I've gone back and fixed that_

_

* * *

_

* * *

**Chapter 003/ Endless Waltz II**

* * *

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

"Stop."

Curled in a cold dark empty room, Samantha hugged her legs to her shivering from. It wasn't 'cold'; in fact the temperature was a comfortable twenty five degrees. No, the coldness came from inside her.

The room was a standard four by four. There was no furniture, save one leaky sink and a lidless toilet bowl. There was no bed, no table, nor windows, or a source of light save a pitiful blue small ceiling mounted lamp.

There were no doors.

She was captive.

She had woken up, still in her flight-suit, in this dark place for what seemed like ages ago. Even the shortest span of time could seem like eternity in a place where hardly any light could shine.

The wrist clock on her watch noted that since waking up she had been in this small cell for just over three hours. That was eight hours since the disaster that was her live piloting exercise.

And the day had started so well too…

* * *

"You'll do fine on this life exercise Sam." Alexis insisted. Changed out of her uniform, the redcoat had been given the day off by the headmaster since her fiancé had made a rare visit to the colonies on his off week. A generous gesture. 

"I'd feel a lot more comfortable if you were the supervisor in charge of this sis." Samantha pouted. Although her meeting with Sean had lifted her spirits somewhat, returning to the academy was akin to a cold slap of reality to her face. She was still dead last.

"Don't worry Sam. You may have failed spectacularly during the simulated programs…" Alexis did not miss the slight wince her sister made at those words, "…but this is a live exercise. It's a lot different from the computer generated crap you are used to, so you may do better. Hack, you may even come out on top!"

Samantha looked at her sister incredulously.

"Trust me Sam, you'll do better. I feel it."

* * *

The gaudy green ZAFT flight suit felt bulky and cumbersome to Samantha. She had never gotten quite used to wearing it. After careful observation on a simulated flight, which incidentally ended in Samantha slamming into the virtual hangar of a Nazca class cruiser killing all it's virtual maintenance crew and herself, Shiho had noted that a third of Samantha's mistakes could be attributed to her not being used to that suit. 

It was disheartening, seeing as how wearing that suit was always a prerequisite for a sortie. Samantha had tried time after time to get used to it, but she never could.

Yet here she was, sitting in the briefing room of the Nazca Class training ship, waiting for the instructor to come in. This also left her in a room full of jeering cadets, who had finally "cornered" her without her protective sister.

"Hey Miss Shooting Star. What brings you here today?" a boy jeered.

"Yeah, I thought they'd bar her from taking this exercise after her score came out this morning." Another guffawed. "Hey watch out! Better clear the hanger for her landing or she might do you in!"

"Worse, she might out do herself and take out the whole ship! Then we"d all be shooting stars!" Despite the morbid humor of those words, the entire room broke into fists of cruel laughter.

Part of her couldn't blame them. After all, many of them had worked hard to get their scores. To see a "zero talent poser" among them every day was an insult to their entire class. Any other person besides her would have long been discharged from the academy, or transferred to another division. Because of Shiho's efforts, she hadn't been outright expelled.

But that just gave rise to more rumors. How she was so useless she couldn't fin in anyway else. How they couldn't throw her out because she was a Westernfuss. How she had slept with a councilor and was blackmailing him into keeping her in the academy.

Samantha's insides constricted when the empty seat beside he was taken…

…by Veronica Garstein.

"Hello Westernfuss." It was quite a sight, the best and worst pilots of her academy year sitting beside each other. The entire room fell silent at Veronica"s arrival.

Standing much taller than Samantha with a much more ample chest (which was an endless source of annoyance for Samantha), the wavy haired brunette sneered at her. Veronica looked absolutely pissed.

"Thank you for this morning." Samantha remembered the laps her sister had forced the older cadet to do. Samantha was hardly surprised; the other girl was one to hold a grudge. "I hope you are looking forward to this exercise Miss Westernfuss."

"I am." Samantha replied carefully. "It'll be the first time I've flown in a real mobile suit before."

"Ah… but I'm guessing you didn't know that this particular exercise is special." Veronica turned to address the rest of the class. "We're going to be joined by a ZAFT patrol battle group… the _Hercules_ is their flagship. I got this information directly from Captain Beckman of the _Hercules_ himself; he seemed to think I was a shoe in for recommendation. I guess being number one has that effect on some people."

The hushed silence of the room was soon followed by excited murmuring among the students. The _Hercules_ was the third Minerva-class assault carrier built by ZAFT armed forces. Only twelve of these ships were in service, with the thirteenth due to be christened in a week"s time.

The pride of the ZAFT navy, these formidable ship's entire mobile suit contingents were only ever comprised of pilots wearing the wine red uniform so feared by the Earth Forces.

"It seems like they are going to monitor the cadets from this school and pick out who gets to get one of those red coats."

Samantha felt her heart skip a beat as the rest of the class broke into more excited whispers. A red coat. The elite of ZAFT's armed forces, the pinnacle of what every mobile suit pilot could aspire to. Although Samantha did not plan to stick around in ZAFT, having even worn a cadet version of those coats would do wonders for her credentials.

She had to make a good impression on them!

"I wouldn't get your hopes up Shooting Star." Veronica said beside her, quietly enough that only she would hear the venom in her voice. "With your stills, it would be a cold day in hell before you wear that coat. I intend to personally make sure of it."

If there was one thing Samantha hated, it was being looked down upon by a person she viewed as arrogant or cruel. Her determination to get that red coat flared to lie, fueled by her desire to prove this witch wrong. Samantha shot the other cadet a fiery glare. "Try me."

Little did she guess how bad her luck would be that day.

* * *

Samantha's eyes creaked open. Once again, she was back in the cold dark cell. 

When had she fallen asleep?

Briefly checking her wrist timer, she noted it had now been twelve hours and twenty three minutes since she had been in captivity. A low growl emendated from her stomach.

She noticed her throat and lips seemed painful.

She had fallen asleep twice, and thus far she has had absolutely no contact with her captors. They didn't even come in to feed her.

Were they trying to starve her?

It was then she noticed the place of food and several bottles of water on the floor near one of the walls of the room. Survival kicked in.

She ate the food with her bare hands. In moments the croissant and roast lamb had disappeared. She drank the bottles of water with relish. The table manners that her parents had drilled into her were completely forgotten.

Eat. Drink. Survive.

When she had emptied the last drop from her last bottle, Samantha began returned to the far corner of her cell and waited. She waited for something to happen.

Something had to happen right?

"Alexis… mom… dad… Miss Shiho… Heine…" Samantha bit back tears. She had thought about them many times during her captivity, but it never got any better. Would they know she was captive in some unknown place, no human contact and alone in the dark? Would they think her dead, among the slain with the rest of the _Hercules_ battle group?

Samantha shook her head to stop her tears from coming. No, she couldn't afford to drift away. Not until she could at least see the faces of her captors. Focus on now. So she could see tomorrow.

Two hours later and one toilet trip, the cadet found herself drifting back off to sleep again.

* * *

"If this is what the academy is turning out, I fear for ZAFT"s future." Captain Julian Beckman watched the training GiNN in his the main view screen stumble through the obstacle course with all the finesse of a blind buffalo with a mixture of amusement and horror. 

The obstacle course was the remains of a space battle that the Junk guild had already combed through on ZAFT"s behest to remove any potentially dangerous objects, leaving just enough debris to present a safe challenge to the cadets using the course.

Well, it was safe, but it wasn't supposed to be this much of a challenge. Somehow, the GiNN collided with another piece of space debris and got its leg lodged in a crevice. Up to the knee. It was unheard off.

The ensign in charge of the helm chuckled as the GiNN's pilot tried quite comically to dislodge the appendage from the debris with a few low powered beam rifle bursts. Importunely, only designed for training purposes, the intensity of the rifle shots were only of the intensity of a homemade firecracker. Still stuck. "This reminds me of the Saturday morning cartoons my son watches."

Beckman's eyes widened as the mobile suit reached out and began to pry the leg loose manually, fingers curling around the torn debris and tearing the metal away like it was removing wrapping paper. He looked over to his executive officer. "Who is this pilot?"

"Cadet Samantha Douglas Westernfuss, Sir. She's the worst in their class." The officer noted, expecting the captain to dismiss the pilot since she was effectively stuck. "They call her the Silver Shooting Star because she's been shot down in every simulated combat engagement."

"That's some hand eye coordination she's showing there." The captain noted silently as the GiNN continued to claw through the debris.

_Hercules'_ gunnery officer gasped. "She's a Westernfuss? As in Heine and Alexia's little sister?" the officer looked back at the view screen. "Could have fooled me."

The comm. Officer broke into fits of laughter as she listened to the sixteen year old cadet cursing and swearing over the com channel. Samantha had given up trying to tear her leg out. Instead she blew the entire appendage off via emergency purge and continued along the course. Suddenly a blight beeping caught her attention and the officer's eyes grew serious.

"Captain! Priority one transmission from ZAFT HQ!"

* * *

"There is the stuttle." Samantha noted. Her "legless" GiNN slowed to a stop in the path of the shuttle. Samantha sent the beacon out to the Dom squadron from the _Hercules_. 

"Cadet Westernfuss to _Hercules_, I've found the shuttle." Samantha suppressed a slight smirk. She found the shuttle first! She had does something right for once! Samanatha was elated.

Mistake after mistake and then, poof success? This was her lucky day!

If only she realized a bad omen when she saw it.

When a priority-1 message suddenly came into the Hercules, the entire training exercise was cancelled. Apparently some previously unheard of terrorist group had gotten a hold of sensitive intelligence documents. They were making a run from the Aprillius Nine.

As fate would have it, the _Hercules_ battle group happened to be the ones in the best position to intercept these terrorists. Apparently the information was so sensitive that all available cadets were to assist in the search. And since Samantha already happened to be in the air…

Well, changing pilots would take valuable time wouldn't it?

"This is Herc-5, Rodger Westernfuss. Hang tight; I'll all be over shortly… Good work." Samantha switched off her comm. And pumped her hand in the air. Victory! Red coat, here she comes!

Then her battery ran dry.

Another bad omen.

* * *

"Attention shuttle. Stand down and prepare to be boarded!"

In Samantha's opinion, watching as the mobile suit squadrons encircle the shuttle, the fearsome _Hercules_ and its two Nazca class escorts hang threateningly in the background, was quite satisfying. She'd done something right for once.

The academy's cruiser had already pulled back for the student's safety to the possible firefight that might break out once the _Hercules_ cornered the terrorists. Of course, she was unable to get away as her suit was more or less dead in the water.

It was quite surprising at how quickly the Hercules responded though; before the shuttle could even plot a new course, the Doms were all over it.

One of the Nazca's Goufs was courteous enough to supply her suit with a new power pack. "There you go kid, better get out of here now." The friendly pilot of the Gouf said as Samantha"s GiNN came back online. "Things might get ugly in a little bit."

His concern was well founded. One of the Nazcas had pulled up alongside the shuttle and had begun to extend a docking cable. If the terrorists were going to try something it would be soon.

"Understood." Samantha knew that her burning desire to prove herself occasionally got her into trouble, but even she knew that staying around was way over her head. Her hands flew over the controls of her GiNN as the engine came back online.

"Attention shuttle, stand down and prepare to be boar-" The communications broadcast was abruptly cut off when the ship came apart, sliced clean in half, right through stem to the stern.

The entire ship.

The cut was so clean, the ship didn't even explode. It just slid gracefully into two halves into the night without as much as a warning. Crew men, mechanical parts and other items flew out into deep space from the tear in the ship.

"_Waga na wa Shoko… Katsura Shoko! Aku wo Tatsu Tsurugi Nari!"_

It was then Samantha saw it…

The Black Astray, and its colossal ship cleaving sword.

* * *

Samantha awoke screaming, her body failing wildly. 

For a breadth of time she thought she was back in her GiNN, watching a nightmare unfold before her. Instead, she was back in the cell. Realizing she was in "relative" safety, at least safer than she was back in the GiNN, she stilled.

For a moment Samantha lay motionless on the cold hard steel floor. Then, tentatively, she checked the time on her wrist watch.

"Four days, eighteen hours, twenty three minutes and two seconds." Samantha whispered. Rolling onto her back, Samantha noted the new plates of food on the floor.

At some point while she was asleep, someone had come into fix the broken lamp and leaky sink in the room. It was much better lit now. Although she much appreciated the gesture, it also worried her. How did they know when she was awake? Either they had some way of controlling her sleeping cycle or there were hidden cameras in the room.

Neither thought was comforting.

Every time she awoke, she would find more food on the floor waiting for her. Just like magic. The food she was given was very varied. Sometimes she was given very 'Spartan' dishes, a bunch of MREs was the most odd among those dishes, other times she awoke to find a viable feast awaiting her consumption.

Someone even gave her a bottle of bourbon at one point. As Samantha was quite clearly underage, she felt obliged not to drink it. Besides, who knows what they might decide to do to her unconscious body if she accidentally drank too much and got drunk?

But given the dearth of human interaction she was having right now, maybe trying to attract some attention might not be such a bad idea.

Would her captors not even grace her with their presence?

"There has to be something in the Geneva Convention against this kind of treatment." Samantha mumbled. Sitting up, the teenager once again fed on the meal, this time with the provided utensils; they had provided her.

Whoever her captives were, at least they served good food. Who ever heard of P.O.W.s getting a three course steak dinner? Samantha took the provided drink, a bottled drink of some kind, and tilted it up…

"PWAH!" She spat the foul tasting liquid, the most horrible thing she had ever tasted in her entire existence, out. "The hell?"

The neon blue liquid made contact with the steel floor and started… dissolving it. Samantha stared in horrified amazement. The drink was dissolving the floor. Samantha blinked. Poison? "O-kay. I'm sure as heck not drinking this…" Samantha squinted to make out the handwritten label on the bottle. "…Soylent Genki?! Luckfield special recipe?! A health drink?!"

The smell of the tarnished floor reached her nostrils. The lingering taste festered in her mouth.

Quickly running over to the sink, Samantha emptied the rest of the neon blue liquid into oblivion.

Samantha decided they were trying to kill her. Well, they'd have to try better than that. She'd have to be come careful as to what she ate from now on.

Settling back into her corner, Samantha continued to wait. It was all she could do, in a room so devoid of, well, anything.

Once again, she stared at the ground before her until she drifted off back into sleep.

The flash of silver. A flashing of red optics. A nightmare given form.

* * *

It was a nightmare given form. 

Standing atop the shuttle was the most sinister M1-Astray she had ever seen. Despite being commonly regarded as an outdated machine, Samantha had a feeling that this one was different from the moment she saw it. Colored black where a normal M1-Astray was colored the reddish orange, its sinister glowing neon red eyes glowed menacingly at the forces arrayed before it.

There were slight modifications through out the machine's frame, mainly extra armor and a ball joint for its two wrists, but Samantha barely took any notice for those.

Not with that sword it had in its hands.

Looking back, the massive single edged sword that was at least a tall as the machine itself was the first thing that caught Samantha's attention. On its bladed edge, the untarnished razor sharp edge of the silvery metal only hinted of the blade's true lethality. Behind the blade were rows of engines, accelerating each swing to cause unbelievable destruction.

Much later on in her life, Samantha would learn what the blade was called, but at that time, all she could do was stare at the weapon, and focus on one undeniable fact.

Its wielder was about to go ape shit on them.

"Unknown pilot, this is your last chance to stand down or-"

The pilot of the Dom didn't even get to finish his sentence. The Astray moved with blinding speed, suddenly appearing beside him and sliced his suit into two before he could even register his gun was no longer trained on its target.

"Fire! Kill it!" Eleven mobile suits opened up on the single machine.

What happed next wasn't even a fight. It was a complete, senseless, merciless one sided slaughter.

In one massive swing, the Astray simultaneously deflected all the incoming fire and cleaved apart six of the ZAFT mobile suits in a monstrous display of its power. A piece of an exploding suit slammed into her GiNN pushing her back away from the Hercules sending a screaming Samantha away from the two remaining capital ships.

Just as well, considering what happened next.

The remaining suits wisely fell back to the ships for cover, believing that the large vessels could provide them more cover than if they remained out in the open. The Astray merely assumed a left handed thrusting stance.

"_Zankano… Denkko-Setta!" _

Samantha could not fathom a scientific explanation as to how it happened. Perhaps had they been planet side, she would say the force of the trust accelerated the wind into a lethal projectile. Unlikely, but possible. Perhaps had it been a beam weapon, she would say it fired a beam blast, and its trust was merely an activation of that weapon system. But they were in cold hard vacuum, and that was no beam weapon.

The Astray had used its sword to gut the remaining Nazca from range.

The large battle ship gave a lurch before exploding, showering the _Hercules_ and the surviving mobile suits with shrapnel and debris. In one horrifying case, a shard of metal the size of a man imbedded itself in a Gouf's midsection, killing its pilot, but leaving the rest of the suit relatively intact.

It seemed like Beckham had finally had enough. "This is Captain Beckham to all surviving units; we're firing the _Tanhuasier_! Get out of the way and stop its movement!"

The reaction from the open channel broadcast was instantaneous. All the ZAFT mobile suits fell back behind the massive ship firing as they went as it prepared to fire its deadliest weapon. As the large positron revealed itself to its target, Samantha could only gaps in awe at how the Astray planned on responding.

Instead of trying to dodge life any sane pilot, the Astray merely moved into a ready stance, sword tip down hilt gripped over its head, as if to provoke the ZAFT vessel. "He's crazy…" Samantha whispered, completely awed by the Astray's show of bravado or stupidity.

A _Tanhuasier_ blast would be child's play to dodge for a half decent pilot, but if it were to be taken full on, it would spell certain death.

Then the _Hercules_ let loose with its mighty main cannon.

The beam caught the mobile suit full on. Samantha had to shield her eyes from the intensity of the weapon's discharge. Not even bothering to move out of the way, Samantha knew that the Astray was fin…

"_CHESTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"_

The Astray cleaved the _Hercules_ in one immense swing.

* * *

The blast had met the bladed edge of the colossal blade head on. Much like how the Gerbera Straight had once split an energy beam in two, so too did the massive blade cleave the ionized beam.

Reversing its grip on the weapon, the Astray spun around facing _away_ from the _Hercules_ while keeping its sword stationary. Then the impossible happened. The Astray made an enormous overhead swing, cutting through the energy beam like it was tearing a vertical line through paper.

The force of this unbelievable move ripped the energy beam from the point of contact with the enormous sword down to its source.

The _Tanhausier_ cannon mounted on a Minerva-class assault carrier. The _Hercules_ didn't even know what hit it.

"_Waga Zankanto ni… Tatenu mono Nashi…!"_

The _Hercules_'s resulting explosion, no doubt killing all hands, engulfed all the other remaining ZAFT units in one massive fireball. Samantha could only stare dumbly at the sight.

It was a freaking nightmare.

Then the nightmare got a whole lot worse.

Resting the massive blade on its right shoulder, the monstrous machine turned to face HER, eyeing GiNN's beam rifle. Oh man, why did the practice versions have to look so much like the real thing? She could almost see the pilot going 'Oh look, there's one left'.

Never had Samantha been so frightened in her entire life.

It hefted it's blade into its hands…

Samantha did not know what possessed her to do what she did. It was crazy, stupid and insane. She had no idea where she even came up with it. But in this moment of desperation, Sam fell back on her instincts.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!"

Sam slammed on the accelerator, charging her battered GiNN directly into her nemesis while undoing her safety harness and popping the cockpit hatch as quickly as she could. It was crazy to charge an enemy that seemed to rely exclusively on a SWORD of all things, but there was an odd since of logic to it.

Thus far everyone Sam had watched fighting this demon had all tried, and failed, to engage it at a distance. Running away in a half dead GiNN was also not an option, since the machine did not look like the type to take prisoners and could probably outrun her five times over. So that left one option.

Drive and ditch.

With all her will Sam howled at the demon before her. Every fire of her being screamed the will to live. She refused to die here!

She must have taken the pilot by surprise. Instead of cleaving the GiNN in half like it had doe with the other ZAFT suit, the Astray seemed to hesitate long enough as if stunned by Sam's cry that the swing missed the GiNN completely. The two machines crashed into each other.

"Now!"

Sam, already braced for this impact in advance and, recovering quickly from the lurch her suit gave, launched herself out of her GiNN and pulled herself onto the torso of the stunned Astray, praying to every deity she knew that the other pilot would not notice it's new stowaway. Sam could not believe it. She pulled it off!

Her foot caught in one of the latches on the Mobile suit's waist armor, just like her accident earlier.

Not good.

It only took the Astray half a second longer to recover. It batted the GiNN aside before impaling the machine through the cockpit with the entire length of the enormous blade before throwing the gutted robot aside like a rag doll.

Ouch. She didn't want to feel that.

Then her GiNN exploded, and a piece of flying debris smacked her in the helmet. Samantha promptly blacked out.

* * *

Samantha awoke yet again for the umpteenth time. Her eyelids were heavy, and she was emotionally tired. 

After her GiNN had exploded, she had blacked out, waking only to find herself stuck in this god forsaken cell in her flight suit sans helmet. Her foot must have been stuck so well to the latch that she was dragged all the way to wherever the Astray had come from before being discovered.

Captured by as yet unknown terrorists. Great.

She felt sweat and grime on her. Samantha hadn't had a good shower since she had departed from Aprillius Nine.

Samantha checked her watch again. The blank screen stared back at her. The power cell in her suit had finally run out.

Those things were meant to last for at a least a week.

"_I found you!" _

The sudden voice rocked Samantha out of her reverie. Leaning over her was a little platinum blonde haired girl, barely older than a toddler, with golden eyes in a pink long sleeved shirt , a set of navy blue overalls and plated skirt. She smiled playfully at Samantha. The girl stuck her hand out as if to greet her.

"_My name's Salya! Let's be friends!"_

Then Samantha noticed the youngster was glowing unnaturally. Then to she realized she could see the far wall through the semi transparent figure.

It finally happened. She was hallucinating.

Samantha finally snapped.

Springing off the floor, she ran over to the far wall knocking over the plates of food on the floor and started pounding away at the cold steel. The little girl frowned at the hysterical teenager before shrugging with understanding. _"Oh well, maybe next time."_ She winked out of existence.

"Let me out!" Samantha hollered. "I know you're there! Let me out of here! Please! I'm going crazy in here!"

The wall responded with silence.

"Who are you people!? Why are you doing this to me?" Sam continued. "At least let me know you're there! I can't take this anymore! I don't want to me alone!"

Aside from her pounding of fists on the wall, there was no other noise.

"Please, somebody! I don't want to be alone!" Samantha raised her fist…

And fell face forward into a lit hallway. "…Owie…" Pulling herself to her feet, Samantha was quite surprised to find herself staring into the eyes of a young pre-teen girl who was glancing around cautiously.

"We don't have much time; security will be here any minute." The girl said.

Samantha just stared at the girl dumbly. Seconds passed. The girl looked at her with mild annoyance. "… err… hello? Prisoner breakout? Now? Security coming?"

"Oh. Right."

_

* * *

_

_+ I decided to give Samantha an Ecole-du-Ciel rivalry with Veronica. I'll get a lot worse between them, trust me._

_+ No, nobody stole any secret documents. It was a lie fabricated by someone._

_+ Shoko's character is based on Wodan Yimir, not Zengar. When the time comes, you will see how utterly ruthless and mercyless she is. Think of her as a Jaded Zengar trying to break out._

_+ The Zankanto Shoko was using was a mobile suit sided version of the Grungust Reishiki Zankanto. I've decided to let her 'Reishiki Astray' use the techniques of the Daizengar as opposed to waiting until she gets her equivalent of Episode 30. That Zankanto will also be replaced soon. Should I keep calling it Reishiki though?_

_+ Yes, the Reishiki is overpowered, but that's because it's a bloody super robot with a really Super Robot orientated pilot fighting a bunch of real grunts. Don't worry, Samantha's battles will be more 'even' in the style of the 80's gundam shows._

_+ Am trying to come up with several original Zankanto techniques. I have the moves in my head The problem is, I don't know that to call them in Japanese. Pretty frustrating when I have one that involves blasting the enemy into the air Tsumaki Zankanto Style and impaling them on your sword when they finally come back down before dissecting the poor sod in five directions. Somebody get me a translator!_

_+ Yes, that health drink IS exactly what you think it is. Don't worry, somebody will be unfortunate enough to fall victim to it eventually._

_+ Ibis's 'Irui' is quite dead in this story. Her role is no less important though._

_+ It just occurred to me that I should mention that I envision several of my OCs to have particular voice actors, such as Samantha being voiced by either Akeno Watanabe or Ayako Kawasumi. If you want a list, I could provide you guys with one._

_Does anybody want a Shoko v Lowe fight or a Shoko v Cagalli fight? Zankanto v Gerbera Straight or…? It will be interesting either way. Plot dictates she has to face down either one of these characters at some point, so take your pick._

_

* * *

_

_The next chapter is a bit sadistic, but is meant to be funny. If no one laughs, I must have really spent too long on 4-chan._

_Preview;_

Shoko sighed "So what are you betting on THIS time?"


	4. Endless Waltz III

**Chapter 004/ Endless Waltz III**

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing here except my original characters and the storyline. The Gundam fanchise belongs to Sunrise, the SRW and ACE franchise belong to Banpresto, Nono belongs to Gainax and all references to other series (Irresponsible Captain Taylor, Metal Gear Solid) belong to their rightful owners (Tatsunoko Productions, Konami/HideoKojima)

* * *

"I still maintain that we release her." Hassaway repeated. "We given the sensitivity of the mission, we cannot afford to be concerned about the welfare of our prisoner. There is also the possibility of an information le–"

"Hey, hey, little brother…"

"Commodore, while we are in our uniforms, I must insist that you refer to me as your First Officer, your Executive Officer or by my rank."

"Right-o-then, Hassie-chan."

Even Shoko had a hard time resisting the urge to sigh while she watched the two highest ranking officers on the ship bicker uselessly. 'Hassie-chan?' she thought. The guys down in the cage would kill to hear that.

Lieutenant Commander Hassaway Gloval Yashima was a tall young man with pale light green hair cropped and groomed exactly in line with the regulations. His white officer's uniform was in pristine condition, from the dress jacket to the shined officers boots, and his upright posture and stern expression spoke much about his no nonsense attitude. Though a rising star as far as naval officers went for his age, the twenty two year old man acted like older, uptight officers.

Conversely, his brother, older by ten years and two months, was often said to act like an impulsive twelve year old.

Taylor Light Yashima was rarely ever seen in his uniform, often choosing to wear a worn black trench coat he had picked up from some pawn shop, over the old tuxedo he had used for his high school graduation dance. The long pale green hair his family was well known for was tied into a single pony tail, wrapped around his neck life a scarf. The ridiculous yellow swim goggles over his eyes were completely mismatched with the rest of his outfit and the only reason he wore his faded black cowboy boot, with spurs and all, was because regulations absolutely required him to wear some kind of footwear. If he had the choice, he would have gone barefoot.

And he also happened to hold the rank of Commodore.

Well, he was the greatest spacial tactician that Shoko knew, even if he looked like more of a circus reject than the most celebrated dropout of the naval officers academy. How he ever wound up in charge of a Space Ark Class warship was mystery, even to the members of high command.

The wing commander of the mobile suit squadron stood along side the first mate in the captain's cabin. While both officers were staining upright in a formal manner, their captain was leaning back on his desk with his feet crossed.

"Commodore, we have held this prisoner in for over a week now in one of the spare rooms," stated Hassaway. In, reality, it was quite funny how their prisoner ended up in there. The ship's brig had seen so little use over the years that the Commodore had one day waltzed in there, declared that it would henceforth be designated as the poker room… and so from then on, the brig cease to exist.

Not that Shoko thought it was a bad decision; their new gambling room had provided her team members an endless source of amusement over the years, so it was good for morale.

Anyway, when they found the ZAFT green coat hanging onto Shoko's Reishiki MS by her foot, the lack of a proper confinement area came back to haunt them. Eventually though, they found a small crewman's cabin in the far starboard side of the ship that nobody bothered to use because of a broken light and a distinct lack of space and privacy. That had to do for the time being.

Hassaway continued. "We cannot keep this up indefinitely; the situation must be resolved now."

"And how do you propose we release her Hassie-chan?" Taylor pointed out. "We can't just stop and pop open the airlock. And even if we did, who knows what would happen to her then? Maybe she'll be rescued. Maybe she'll be picked up by some people worse than us. Maybe she'll suffocate. Bedside's even if she's rescued, you know her contact with us has compromised her safety. I'm sure the Major agrees with me."

Hassaway and Taylor turned to Shoko, one with a stern demanding expression and the other with pleading puppy dog eyes. Not for the first time, Shoko felt like she was stuck in a tug of war between the two. 'Damn it.' She just came here to let the captain know that the researchers had finally decided to submit their testing schedule of their prototype.

"I have to agree with the Commodore, Lieutenant. If we let her off the ship, she would either pose as a security risk because of what she has seen, or more likely she would end up being quietly disposed off. I'm also not comfortable with that sir." 'Among other things…' she added mentally.

"Is that your professional opinion?" Hassaway"s gaze would have blasted a hole in Shoko"s head if it could. He was certainly not pleased with an additional crewmember, especially one that was an accidental stowaway.

Shoko didn't even miss a beat. She nodded an affirmative. "Yes sir."

"Then what do you propose we do? Keep her in that room until the ship is decommissioned? I know some of the crewmembers have taken to feeding the prisoner like some kind of pet. I have no idea HOW I am going to explain this in my report to High Command! It's enough I have to deal with all this eccentric behavior…"

"I was under the impression Admiral Hanner liked reading about our 'eccentric behavior' over FleetCom." Taylor chimed in.

"This is a clear infringement of prisoner's rights and well being… especially with that incident with Luckfield's… Ugh..." Hassaway tried off as the memories flooded back into his mind.

All three officers suppressed a shudder.

"Um, Hass? You won't have to worry about what we're going to do with the girl." Taylor explained. "Actually after much deliberation, I made my decision."

"You… did?"

"... Since when…?"

"Since thirteen hundred hours two days ago." Taylor stated with a smile. Both Shoko and Hassaway's jaws dropped. "I went down to the engineering and security to get the bugs for my plan all worked out. I thought you two knew about it. I guess that means you to haven't placed your wages in yet. Pity."

Wages? Oh hell, the blasted man had found another way to gamble again.

"… and you saw if to inform us of this… when?" Hassaway gaped at his brother. Keeping things from the XO! What kind of outfit was his older brother running anyway?

"…plan? What plan?" Shoko asked, more concerned as to the prisoner's fate more than anything else. He answer came in the form of the door to the Captain's cabin sliding open.

"Hey Yashima, It's started! Hurry up boss!" An eye patch wearing marine commander called from the doorway. "The pot is goin' to go to one of ma boys ya hear? It'd be a cold day in hell before a kid is gonna slip by mah men."

'... Pot?' Hassaway and Shoko thought.

Shoko whirled around to face the grinning Commodore. She sighed. "So what are you betting on THIS time?"

* * *

Samantha followed the girl down the corridor at a quick pace. The ship, at least Samantha thought it was a ship, was a venerable maze of glowing white corridors and interconnecting hallways.

The interior of the ship was unlike anything she had ever seen. Unlike ZAFT warships, this vessel had large spacious hallways that were lit with extremely good white ceiling lights. She could see no obvious signs of any bulkheads either. On top of that, it seemed that there was a perfect 1-G gravity throughout the ship wherever they went.

"Hey wait up!" Samantha called to her mysterious benefactor.

The girl could be no more than fourteen years old. Long waist length platinum blonde hair were tied into two pigtails that swayed behind her lithe form, which was moving so quickly even a coordinator life Samantha had a hard time keeping up. She wore a green beret on her head, something that came across to Samantha as adorable.

"Who are you? Why are you helping me?" Samantha called again.

"Quiet or someone will hear us!" The girl shot back. Samantha quickly clamped up. "Who I am does not matter… what matters is that we need to get to the mobile suit in the portside docking bay. If you can pilot it, getting off this rip will be easy."

Samantha nodded. Thus far they had yet to encounter any other crewmember, for which Samantha was thankful. She and her companion had no weapons on them, so getting caught by armed security was bad... a very, very bad thing.

"Through here." The girl strode up to a door and pushed a few buttons on the panel beside it. Sliding open, the two escapees ran through…

"Well, well, well. Look who we have here."

…and came face to face with about ten armed marines dressed head to toe in full riot gear emerging from the other end of a two door corridor. 'Oh man,' Samantha thought. As the guards lined up on the other end of the hallway, a lone figure walked forward.

A young, bandanna-wearing boy armed with a mean looking shotgun smirked at them. "I am…" a slight pause as his voice faltered. "I am…" again a pause. "…fuck it…"

He took a deep breadth. "I am the evil head of security aboard this equally evil pirate ship that has captured you two! Mr. Boomstick McBadass!"

The marines on either side of him either seemed to be shaking in barely controlled laughter or were shaking heir heads at the idiocy of his declaration.

"Now that you two prisoners have escaped from your holding cells, I'm afraid that, as we are a bunch of evil pirates, me and my fellow associates have to capture you so we can give you long and painful deaths for defying our captain, the evil pirate lord Hassaway, AKA the Stuck Up Slave Driver!" He pumped his shotgun, while trying to hide his red face, which was flushed with embarrassment.

Samantha pinched herself. It was so surreal. Maybe she was dreaming again? 'And what's up with the names?' she wondered.

Pointing the shotgun at them, the bandanna wearing kid finished. "So fair maidens, prepare to have your ass kicked, ATX style!" One marine lost his composure and dropped to his knees. Supported by his rifle like a walking stick, the man made low sniggering sounds "… shut up Ridley!" the kid muttered.

Before Samantha could react, the other girl pushed her back out the doorway in which they can and slammed her fist into the door controls, casing the bulkhead to slide shut between them.

Sam fell, rear first onto the hard floor in the deserted corridor. The sound of the shotgun going off on the other side of the door could be heard. Samantha jumped to her feet and begun pounding her hands on the lifeless door, an anguished cry escaping from her throat.

They just killed that young girl. She didn't even know the girl's name.

Despite the ridiculousness of what had just occurred, that one fact resounded in her head.

She continued pounding her hands on the door screaming incoherently. She did so for almost five minutes despite the fact time was against her. It was only until she could hear the approaching footsteps did she reluctantly peel herself from the door.

She couldn't afford to die now. Not after someone had just died for her. With a heavy heart and tears streaming from her eyes, Samantha ran.

* * *

"Chris you fool! What manner of foolery was that?"

"Sorry Ariel."

"Boomstick Mc-What? What kind of foolish name was that?! And did you just swear?"

"Err… no."

"You used the F-word didn't you? Wash that foolish mouth of yours Mr. Heartily! What if Gimmy and Darry heard you, you fool?! If your foolish foolishness had ever influence them into becoming fools… I'd…. Just what kind of role model ARE you?"

"Okay, I got it… mom."

"Don't call me that… and stop foolish laughing and get off the floor Private!"

"Hehehe… Sorry Sergeant Major… heh…"

"And did you just call the Lieutenant Commander a stuck up slave driver? You fool! You do know he could be watching this right? He'll give us swabbing duty for the rest for the week!"

"Would you rather me use 'Irresponsible Captain Taylor'?!"

"…"

"…"

"… Never mind. She's completely lost, but at least the foolish girl knows where to go. Let's just get this over with before I pop a blood vessel from to all this foolery. Now where is my jacket?"

"…"

"…"

"… and she thinks I use the F-word…"

* * *

It had been nearly twenty minutes since her companion had been killed by Mc Badass. Samantha was currently hiding in what seemed to be a large laundry basket.

Moments after her flight through the corridors, the ship started to come alive with armed marines with all manner of weaponry, forcing Samantha to actually hide from a passing guard. And she really meant all manner of weaponry.

What rational man trapezes around the interior of a space ship surrounded by cold hard vacuum with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher?

She felt like she was in a game of Metal Gear Solid.

Samantha held her breath as two armored men passed by her hiding spot. Or at least almost passed. Suddenly they stopped in front of the basket. Peeking out from one of the sides, Samantha noted with growing horror that one man was carrying of all things, a chainsaw. 'Don't breathe. Don't breathe. Don't breathe…' she chanted the mantra over and over in her head.

"Darn. The girl ain't anywhere. At this rate, the pot's gonna be going to somebody that ain't one of us." stated one marine, armed with a high powered carbine of some kind.

"…" The other marine looked like she didn't talk much.

"I tell ya Sawyer. If some kid is going to slip by us, the SRT's are gonna be laughing at us for weeks! And we'll deserve it! She's barely past puberty."

He leaned on the laundry basket, his weight coming down on the pile of clothes and incidentally, the person hidden under those clothes. "Goddamn. If it weren't for the pot, I'd wouldn't even consider this game of hide and seek." He lit up a cigarette.

"…smoking…"

The first marine let out a string of curses. "What the hell?! Not you too Sawyer! Can't a decent man get a smoke around here anymore?" He stumped out the cigarette. "Oh what the hell, lets get moving. The girl won't just walk up to us."

Samantha inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. She had no idea what they were saying, but at least the lady who spoke through a voice machine would be gone.

"…laundry basket…"

Samantha froze. 'Oh no. Please don't…' she whimpered.

"Oh yeah. Almost forgot. Thanks Sawyer." Before Samantha could even react, a bag the most disgusting, smelly, grimy load of underwear in existence was dumped on the cloths above her. "That's three months worth of my undies. I've been putting it off for like forever. Now that that's done, let's get moving. I got a lot of money…"

The voice trialed off. However it and retreating sound of their feet didn't even register to Samantha, her nasal, visual, and hearing innocence shattered.

It would be a long time before Samantha would work up the nerve to move again.

* * *

It was some time before Samantha had finally managed to find her way to the portside hanger. It was thanks to further eavesdropping that she figured out where she was supposed to go.

She never questioned her good fortune when she saw door with the words "To Port Hanger: Airlock and Locker Room" below it. That was fine. But in time, Sam would look back and wonder why…

1. …she never questioned that the door was completely unguarded despite the common knowledge there was an escapee on the loose.

2. …she never questioned that her ZAFT flight helmet was placed on the bench of the changing room, completely unmolested.

3. …she never questioned that no-one overrode the 'depressurization' procedure in the airlock, which took three minutes.

In other words, she would laugh with her close friends and wonder why, oh why she never saw it coming, because in reality, she should have.

"YES!" Samantha barreled through the open airlock into a dark hanger, helmet on. The elation she felt that she was almost home free blinding her to the fact that other than the single machine in front of her, she couldn't see a darn thing. In the hanger a single mobile suit sat in a crouching position, cockpit hatch open.

The Black Astray.

But it was her ticket out of here. Hopping in to the large machine, Samantha mentally ran through the startup procedures of the M-series mobile suits. M1-Astrays were reputedly designed, courtesy of one Kira Yamato, to be so easy to use a monkey would move it.

It was in that machine did Samantha get her first glimpse of an 'alternative operating system'.

No joysticks. No buttons. No foot pedals. Not even a chair… just one circular chamber with a three-sixty degree view screen and an empty space in the middle. "What is this?!" Probing around as the hatch closed behind her, Samantha could see no way in which she could start the machine up, let alone pilot it. "I… can't pilot this thing!" Samantha realized.

"…AAAAAANNNNNNDDDDDD WE HAVE A TOUCHDOWN!!!" boomed a voice from outside the machine, causing Samantha to jump a few feet in the air in surprise. The announcement was accompanied by a loud cheering and calls of excitement... and the song Let's Get Ready to Rumble.

"Wha...!? What?" The cockpit hatch suddenly opened and a large spotlight shone through… focused on her.

"And there is our heroine right now!" The announcer, a ridiculous looking man wearing an old coat over a tuxedo and with a pair of tacky goggles on, walked up to her while speaking into a microphone. He took her hand and dragged her out of the machine into the light.

It was then Samantha realized the entire hanger was filled with people. The entire crew, including the armed marines who incidentally now looked quite ashamed of themselves, lined the floor, the catwalks, and every inch of space of the hangar. Samantha naturally froze stiff as a statue.

"Okay crew, this fine young lady is our escapee! She successfully evaded capture from our marine contingent and made it into the hangar; a feat no man, beast or monster has ever accomplished before! Give her a round of applause!"

Once again, Samantha found herself pinching her cheek to see if she was just dreaming. 'It's all a bad dream, it's all a bad dream, it's all a bad dream...' she thought This was… insane. She'd never heard of this kind of thing ever happening before. She didn't know whether to be angry of happy. They hadn't shot her on the spot, but it seemed clear that they knew of her attempt to escape long before hand.

A loud computerized feminine voice sounded from the room. "Time taken for the prisoner to escape, forty six minutes and fifty three point two seconds. Winner of the pot; Science Officer Nono Takaya with an estimate of forty six minutes and… fifty three point three seconds? Wow that was incredibly accurate."

Disappointed murmuring sounded throughout the large hanger. Samantha tilted her head. Pot?

A bubbly pink-haired girl with clover shaped irises decked out in a full lab coat strode haughtily up to the announcer. "No fair… You're a cyborg, chief! estimate is too accurate to be legal!" another crewman in a blue jumpsuit moaned.

"All's fair in love and war." Nono hummed. "So Commodore, what are my winnings?"

The goggled man pulled out a PDA and checked its screen. "The pot amounts to twelve thousand and two hundred union credits… it seems like some people bet a lot of money in this thing. Spend it wisely my good lady." Nono made a victory sign with her fingers to the defeated crewmembers before strutting off, enjoying the taste of victory and wondering what new projects could try next with those winnings.

Samantha's eyes almost popped out of her head. She was… a gambling object? A vision of a rat running through a maze searching for cheese crossed with a horse racetrack came to mind.

"Next up, let's give a hearty ovation for our best performer of the day who single-handedly stopped this event from coming apart, Sergeant Major Ariel Loveless! Spotlights, if you please!"

The large spotlights shifted until the focus was on a young girl. Samantha almost gagged.

Thirteen year old Ariel Loveless, now in a matching jacket to her wing-mates with the wording of "Assault-3" on her shoulder insignia, sighed tiredly. She put away the small book she was reading 'Parenting for Dummies: Digest addition.' into the breast pocket. "If it were not a direct order from you commodore… what foolishness." She folded her arms over her chest about as unhappy about the situation as Samantha was.

Then it all clicked. Samantha tilted her head forward until her bags hid the expression on her face. "Mr. Commodore, if I may ask you a few questions."

"Yes my good friend! Ask away! You are the guest of honor aren't you?" The Commodore responded happily while riding on the euphoria of the moment, much like a clueless tourist who climbed into the tiger pen.

"So, let me get this right. I was captured and put in a cell for a week with no human contact whatsoever."

A nod.

"Then, suddenly, one day you and your people decide to turn me into some kind of… racing horse by getting me to run around the ship for your own sick and twisted amusement."

Another nod.

"On top of that you people further turned this into some kind of lottery where the person to catch me or the person to correctly guess how long it would take for me to escape." A hearty laugh and a firm pat on the back followed.

"That's about the gist of it my friend. My, you ARE sharp." The Commodore's grin was so wide; you could have painted a series of concentric circles on them. Red and white circles. With the bulls eye in the center of his two front teeth.

"And you did all this without even considering the possible psychological trauma or emotional pain this… thing would cause me?"

"Heck no!"

"DIE!" Samantha's head snapped up and belted the grinning face of the Commodore as hard as she could with complete disregard to the fact she was surrounded by _his_ people. This unconscious body of the oddly dressed man hit the deck with a loud thump. Having been quite traumatized by the experience, Samantha needed an outlet of her pent up frustrations.

She saw one.

She saddled the tuxedo clad officer and gripped him by his tie. Then she proceeded to beat him up.

A pungent silence followed, only broken by the sounds of the young sixteen year old girl pummeling the Commodore's body on the floor.

Then someone finally said something.

"…wow, this kid's vicious… ten bucks on the kid!"

Soon, the area filled with the yells of betting and the chorus of, "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!"

* * *

"Ow, ow, ow, ow…" Taylor complained as the CMO, one Rumiko Luckfield, applied a disinfectant to his bruises. Lying on one of the beds in the medical bay, the bruised eccentric admitted that he probably deserved the black eye, three bruised ribs and numerous other injuries the girl gave him.

Considering he was wearing his skinsuit at the time…

They had finally pried the girl's name out of her. "Sam Douglas". She refused to tell them any more though, for she made a beeline for her cell right after putting the Commodore in the medial station. Some were amazed that the girl, lost as she was before, could find her way back through and unfamiliar ship as if it were second nature to her.

Shoko wasn't too surprised. She had a stinking suspicion their resident troublemaker had taken an interest with the newcomer.

Shoko sat at his bedside rattling off the remained of her report. "… she's been in there ever since. Marty and Nono have tried coaxing her out, but she's responded violently each and every time. Not that I can blame her. What you did was cruel Taylor. Were you even using you head when you came up with that harebrained scheme?"

"Do I ever use my noggin?" A loud groan from his subordinate. "Anyway, what do you plan to do next?"

Shoko sighed in exasperation. "She's been in that room for eight days. Now that you've given her free roam around the ship, I plan to make sure that she at least gets a proper room. Sleeping in a fetal position all those times cannot be good for her."

"There, all done." Rumiko clapped her hands together now that her patient was all bandaged up. "Alright commodore, the medicine I've given you should have you up and about in a day."

The Commodore shot the blue haired doctor a warm smile. "Why thank you doctor!" Rumiko blushed at his delighted face. Turning back to Shoko, Taylor's expression shifted into a rare serious one. "So? What is your evaluation of the girl?"

Shoko shrugged. "She's impulsive. She rarely thinks before she does anything. She has a lot of drive, but this more often than not leads to her recklessness. Absolutely no control over her emotions… However, she does seem to care about people she considers to be her comrades, as shown by her outburst at Ariel's supposed death. That is a huge plus in my book. She also seems to have a problem with focus. All in all, a total idiot."

Shoko shrugged.

"I'd say she'll fit right in with the crew."

* * *

Samantha sat huddled in the corner of her prison, still in her grimy flight suit. She's switched off the lights and hadn't accepted a single morsel of food or drop of water from them since they finally decided that the Commodore had enough punishment and pulled her away from him.

Jerks.

Her fear of death had long been overcome by the outrage at the awful joke that had pulled on her. How could they treat her like some prize horse? It was degrading and humiliating. They even had the nerve to tell her she was free to roam the ship as she pleased now.

What was she? Some kind of pet animal?

"I hope my sister comes in and kicks all your sorry butts." Samantha whispered. She refused to even give them her full name, instead going by an alias, Sam Douglas. Unoriginal, but it got the job done.

The door to her room slid open and light poured into her tiny corner of the world.

Samantha pulled her legs more tightly to herself and tired her hardest to tune out the inevitable drivel they would put forward to her about needing to get out and stretch. Like she'd believe them… the stupid terrorists.

Clink.

The sound of something been placed on the floor of her cell was heard. Then the sound of the sliding door closing followed.

More food? Ha! She'd rather starve to death than accept anything from them.

Once again silence followed…

…

…

…

Okay, maybe just a peek. Samantha shifted her eyes from her huddled form to the single plate of dessert that was lying innocently on the floor.

…

For a moment, comprehension eluded her.

It was impossible.

It was impossible.

…

…

On the floor lay a single plate of cookies and cream cheesecake…

…with two strawberries on the top.

* * *

_+ Poor Shooting Star. I was quite sadistic wasn't I? In any case, the crew of the Kurogane acts likes the crew of the Soyukaze from Irresponsible Captain Taylor. Complete disregard for common p__roprietary, habit of inducting enemy officers and spies into their ranks, habitual gambling, the list goes on…_

_+ As before, Ariel is a mix of Elsa de Sica from Gunslinger Girl, Lamina Loveless, Axel Almer, Latooni and one Franziska von Karma from Ace Attorney. This is due to plot reasons, she has one of the more intricate plot arcs of the OCs, but the Von Karma-Parenting Guide thing is so she can have an odd quirk, like all the other members of the Kurogane._

_+ Nono isn't a character reference. She's much more mature and smart than her canon counterpart, but she isn't a character adaptation. She just got her memory back and grew up a little. It wasn't hard to work her in here._

_+ Martin Marty McFly's name comes from Back to the Future. His character role is equivalent to that of one Maria Radam._

_+ While plot wise Chris is "Kyosuke Nanbu", I picture his personality to be closer to Duo Maxwell from New Mobile Report Gundam Wing or even Excellen herself. Hence the 'foolish foolery'._

_+ The Kushua is in charge of the medbay. It could be worse. Leona could be in charge of the kitchen._


	5. A Kurogane Welcome

**Chapter 005/ A Very Kurogane Welcome!**

_Disclaimer: __I own nothing here except my original characters and the storyline. The Gundam fanchise belongs to Sunrise, the SRW and ACE franchise belong to Banpresto, all references to other series (Irresponsible Captain Taylor, Metal Gear Solid, Gurren Lagann) belong to their rightful owners (Tatsunoko Productions, Konami/HideoKojima, Gainax). In particular the Soukou no Strain character Lavina Rebirth and 'Takaya' Nono from DieBuster! Do not belong to me, they belong to their respective owners. _

_Warning! This story features overpowered 'Super Robots' and borderline Hot-blooded Antics in a 'Real' Universe. If you wish for your image of the CE timeline to not have a machine that can cleave an entire armada in a single swing, please stop reading and flee for your life. I've been watching far too much Gurren Lagann and Getter Robo and GaoGaiGar for this story to be sane._

_Please Read and Review, but no flames please. _

* * *

"I see you're using the V2 chassis." Nono commented as she scrutinized the large mobile suit in the starboard hangar bay. "I thought you'd have come up with something from scratch." 

Takeshi shrugged. "Actually I did, but it's still a bunch of blueprints. I just wanted to test the propulsion system first so I put it onto the only chassis that I thought could take the strain. I just tweaked the existing chassis a bit."

"I thought these mobile suits were made by a different company, not A.E." Marty said, floating cross-legged with a laptop open in front of him. It was the epitome of multitasking; eating a sandwich, running a diagnostic while floating around in a zero gravity environment without bumping into anything. "…and you modified this only a bit? I'd say you overhauled the entire thing. I hardly recognize the O.S. Chris did say it was a monster for a reason."

"Well… yes. The old one tended to crash a lot when a certain velocity was reached.We had to try something very different.""

"Why did you say you were looking for a fight though?" Marty continued. "As powerful this thing is, the armament is pitiful in comparison to Chris' Kampfer and Ariel's Zeta-Plus. I've read the reports and Project TO is a civilian project isn't it?"

"The test pilots on Aprillius Nine just did not cut it. I need a pilot who can handle sterner stuff."

Both Nono and Marty paused."Correct me if I'm wrong, but the test pilots on Aprillius Nine are some of the best pilots the A.E. have."

"I know. But like you said, this thing is a monster. The acceleration on the La Platina is nothing like you'd think on paper.

Nono and Marty glanced at each other worriedly. Considering what they thought of this thing already, saying that it was even beyond that was a bit disconcerting.

"I landed three test pilots in hospital before they told me to go look somewhere else." Takeshi finished.

"…you do know that the Kurogane only has three pilots right now?" Nono laughed nervously. "We need those pilots right now, thank you very much."

"Actually…" Takeshi grinned, "While I originally wanted to see what the fabled ATX team was capable of, after much deliberation, I've decided that have a different pilot in mind. In fact, my wife has gone to secure my pilot now."

Now the two engineers looked at her other in confusion, then horrified comprehension.

It couldn't be…

* * *

Samantha had only taken one step out of her prison when she was accosted by no less than nine crewmen. Female crewmen. They hauled her off kicking and screaming to the showers where they stripped her of her filthy flight suit and gave her a good scrub down. So much so she could swear that her body still ached in some ungodly areas... 

They even shampooed and retied her hair!

Then they put her in a tacky white leather "tube top" that was short enough it exposed her navel, shoved her into some very short shorts, slapped a white jacket onto her and tossed her into a very spacious and very well furnished room before she even knew what was going on.

Sitting on her sore derriere , Samantha found herself lamenting the fact they had neglected to give her any underwear. Then she slapped herself when she realized what she was thinking.

How embarrassing.

Pulling herself to her feet and dusting herself off, Samantha inspected her surroundings. It was a very well lit spacious, or at least spacious as far as ZAFT ship cabins went, room. The room had a desk with a computer on it, two single beds, a wardrobe…

Wait. Two beds? The door slid open behind her.

"Oh? So you decided to come out?" Samantha turned around to see the most intimidating woman she had ever seen in her entire life, and she had seen the Sawyer woman. "It seems like I've finally been assigned a roommate. I'd never guessed they'd have saddled me with you though. My name is Shoko Katsura." Samantha found her eyes wandering over to the crimson eye behind Shoko's scar.

"Stop staring."

"Err…" Samantha's gaze shifted to the long ornate katana Shoko held at the hilt in her left hand.

"Then again, I can't blame you. Not after what the crew put you through." Shoko brushed past her and plopped herself down on one of the beds. "On behalf of the crew of the _Kurogane_, let me apologize for our actions for the past week, Miss Samantha Douglas Westernfuss."

"Eh? How'd you know my name?"

The woman, lying on the bed held out Samantha's ZAFT Pilot academy card limply. "I try to find out the name of everyone who has survived an… engagement… with me. In your case, it wasn't hard stealing your ID out of your flight suit when no one was looking." Samantha's hand instinctively flew to her belt pockets, momentarily forgetting she was not wearing her suit anymore.

"Catch."

Samantha pucked out the flying ID card that Shoko casually tossed over to her. Sure enougth, it was her ID card. "I'd keep that somewhere safe if I were you."

Then Samantha realized what the woman was saying. "You mean… YOU were the pilot of that Astray?!" The nightmare of the monstrous mobile suit gutting the _Hercules _came back to her.

"Is it so hard to believe?"

"You… you killed all those…" Samantha stammered worriedly. She should have stayed in that room.

"I am a soldier. Killing is my trade and my way of life. It's no simpler than that." Shoko responded, closing her eyes. "I have not informed the rest of the crew of your real name. No doubt your relation to the Westernfuss clan would cause quite a stir. They still believe you are Sam Douglas. If you wish otherwise, that will be your decision to make."

The woman fell silent and ceased to move. Did she just fall asleep in the presence of a prisoner? Samantha eyed the woman silently.

Samantha took a step towards the sleeping form.

Shoko's thumb pushed her blade out slightly causing Samantha to step back in fright. "I'm a light sleeper. If we're going to be sleeping in the same room, I suggest you be careful not to wake me up forcefully. People have lost limbs trying to do that."

It was then Samantha noticed that the small brownish stain on the floor was something very disturbing.

She was going to be bunking with this psychopath! It took all of two seconds for Samantha to decide to bolt from the room.

"Yare, yare… what a load of nerves…" Shoko sighed before slipping into another dreamless sleep.

* * *

"Ara… ara… where was her room again?" You Presty, her first name far to long for even the author to remember, stood hands in her A.E. lab coat scratching her head.

* * *

Samantha really had no idea where she was going. She just wanted to get away from the killing machine she was snow supposed to sleep next to.

That woman really put the 'Terror' in 'Terrorist'.

Speaking of which, Samantha had decided sometime ago that she should try and find out as much about the ship as she could. When she was finally rescued, Samantha had no doubt Alexis would come to rescue her, ZAFT would need to know everything they could about these people. So what if she was taking advantage of their hospitality?

Of course, you had to figure out where the heck you were first to do anything, a problem that Samantha had yet to sort out. Currently, she had found this large slab on a wall label "directory" with a map of the entire ship.

Her first impression was that it was a big ship. If the scale was correct, this ship should be over three, no four, times the size of a Minerva class vessel!

Her next thought was that she was located next to a room. It had the label 'brig' on it, but someone had scribbled over that label with a permanent marker and re-labeled it the 'poker room'. It was just one of many alterations to the map. And there were many.

Just another weird thing she had experienced since coming into contact with these clowns.

Her next thought was that her lack of proper underwear was beginning to bother her.

"I see the mob got to you first." Samantha jumped a few feet into the air, her shoulder slamming into something hard. "Blarrg!" Someone had gotten right up next to her and spoke into her ear, and now was paying for it.

It was a boy who wore a bandanna. She hard a hard time placing him at first, but then she saw his old vintage trench shotgun. She pointed a finger at him accusingly. "You! The kid with the corny dialogue and the stupid name!"

Rubbing his bruised chin, Chris sighed. Did the fact he even threatened to blow her brains out even register in her head? "Yep, the Major was right… you'd fit right in." Samantha did not expect that.

"Wha… wha… what are you doing here?"

"Lamenting the fact that I'd just lost three weeks worth of my pay to her." Chris jabbed his thumb at the blonde girl standing beside him, the beret wearing Ariel who had a bored looking expression on her face and a diffrent parenting help book 'Raising the perfect princess' tucked under her arm. "So, how are you enjoying freedom?"

"Just fine thank you very much!" Samantha steamed. The blond pigtailed girl imposed herself between the two.

"I owe you an apology." Ariel cut in. "I was acting on the orders of my superior officer, who is by the way a fool the likes of which you have never seen before, however I still am sorry that my actions caused you undue distress, Ms Douglas. Therefore I feel it is my duty to help get you acquainted with the workings of this ship… would you like something to eat?"

"Translation; sorry babe, I'll show you where the cantina is." Chris quipped.

Samantha thought for a moment. Well, she WAS hungry, and she might as well start somewhere. Although Samantha was still slightly wary, these two kids didn't seem all too bad now that their whole charade seemed to be over. Sure beats hanging out with the killing machine right? Besides, how was she supposed to gather information from the Poker room?

She also remembered Alexis telling her that people tended to have loose lips when they were eating. It was perfect.

Samantha decided. "Okay. Lead the way."

"Very well. But before we do, I need to retrieve up my two charges." Ariel explained. Samantha blinked. 'Charges?'

* * *

The Cantina was more of a large food court than anything else. Like the size of the ship, the Cantina was larger than what Samantha was normally used to. Ariel had mentioned in passing that at any one time, it would seat two hundred almost, a full half of the ship's crew. It required a full time kitchen staff to meet the demands of the crew.

Samantha would have been impressed by this. Even the newer Minerva-class ships only could hold at most fifty crewmen, and there were no dedicated chefs to speak of. On ZAFT ships everything was automated, from instant heated food to laundry.

Yet here was a ship that hearkened back to the days of the early 21st century. Dedicated cooks, a janitorial and housekeeping service, she even caught someone saying they had a scientific research team. The pink haired woman who won the game yesterday came to mind.

Samantha's sharp ears had picked up lots of interesting things about the terrorist's ship. One, it was named the _Kurogane_, a Space-Ark class vessel. Second, it was headed for a place called Von Braun. Samantha had no idea where that was, so it was no help there.

Third, the crew was slightly balmy. They joked about things she wouldn't even begin to think were normal. Some, like Shoko and Chris, carried their weapons openly. Even that creepy marine from before, Sawyer the Saw-er, brought her chainsaw wherever she went. And apparently, the majority of them did not wear any set uniform.

But what amazed her most were not the facilities of the ship, or its eccentric crew. No, it was the two charges Ariel had picked up before coming here.

Samantha could not comprehend how two eight year old children could be aboard a ship full of terrorists. Yet there they were, sitting on a table close to from hers, eating a traditional bacon and eggs breakfast.

Gimmy was a short brown haired youth with a missing front tooth. Darry, his younger sister by ten months, had long pink hair and an absolutely adorable smile. Both were wearing matching clothing, a plain white long sleeved shirt and blue shorts under large brown cloaks.

"Stop eating so fast Darry, it's foolish." Ariel admonished the young girl.

"Oh, Ariel-neesama." Darry whined. "But Gimmy can eat like that." She motioned to her brother who was shoveling the food as fast as he could into his mouth.

Had Ariel thought of the consequences, she would have not said the following words.

"That's because you're a girl like me. There are certain standards we have to adhere to." Ariel said, eating her simple breakfast in a most gracious fashion, proper table manners and all. Gimmy of course, giggled at his sister's plight.

Darry grumbled. "But Shoko-san says that gender distinctions are meaningless. Isn't Shoko-san the strongest one here?" Ariel almost gagged on her up of tea. She tried to come up with some kind of response to that.

As much as she respected the Major, Shoko was quite masculine being the Sword that Cleaves Evil.

"That's because the major is a… tomboy, Darry."

Darry grinned. "Then I wanna be a tomboy too! I wanna get big strong muscles, swing a sword and look cool!" Jumping on the table, Darry did an almost comical impersonation of her idol. "I am Darry! Darry the Pink! I am the Sword who will one day Cleave Evil!"

"W-what f-f-foolishness!"

Ariel suddenly felt like she had been hit by the Kampfer's entire arsenal of explosive weaponry. She resisted the urge to pull out her book and page though it in a frenzied panic for some suitable response. A loud clapping followed her statement as the people in the cafeteria cheered the young girl onwards.

Gimmy of course, absolutely supported his sister's wild declaration, his wide thumbs up another blow to Ariel's mind.

"Yeah! And I'd be your loyal steed! You'll ride-!"

"S-Stop you Fool! This foolishness goes no farther!"

The fourteen year old mercenary and self appointed adoptive parent found herself sweating buckets as she tried to rectify this disaster in the making. Big strong muscles? How was the girl ever going to get married? And a steed? Those riding jokes had all sorts of implications!

Ariel name a mental note to have a long talk with Shoko afterwards about taking down the grandeur about being the Sword that Cleaves Evil to those kids.

Samantha was so entranced by the two children and their guardian that she did not notice Chris plop himself down on the chair beside her.

"Your lack of attentiveness will get you killed someday." Chris smirked when Samantha realized he was there. This time, she didn't jump. "You seem to like those kids. Not surprised, everyone on this ship loves them. They kind of grow on you. Take me, I hated the little brats at first, now…" Chris winked slyly. "Just the help I need to make a pass on Ariel nice and proper."

"Why are they here?" Samantha asked.

"…because they have nowhere else to go." Chris replied, a tinge of sadness in his voice. He quickly covered it up though. "You know, I was expecting you to have a heck of a lot more questions considering we've held you captive for some time. Who we are, where we are from, what do we do…"

"Aren't you Logos terrorists?"

Chris blinked in confusion "Logos? Is that those plastic building blocks that you can use to build stuff? That's a kid's toy. Oh wait, religious reference right? I'm an Atheist myself." Samantha took that as a no. "Actually, I was told to inform you from the Commodore that until we get to know you better, all that stuff is classified. But we're not terrorists… nor are we space pirates!" Chris quickly added, remembering his idiotic speech from yesterday.

Samantha frowned. Well that was problematic, but he seemed honest about it. But how had could he not have heard about Logos? The whole word considered them the worst thing since the black plague. "So you just came here to tell me that you can't tell me anything?"

Chris grinned evilly. "Well that… and the fact that your lack of underwear is giving some marines on table over there a pretty good view. They wanted to me to say 'hi' and 'thank you very much' on their behalf." Samantha paled and turned her head slowly. A bunch of big burly men on a table not to far from hers gave a few wolf whistles and very friendly waves.

Not for the first time that day, she was once again rendered speechless.

"…this is the part where you scream that I'm a pervert and deck me." Chris noted.

Samantha fainted face first into her chocolate pudding, her mind shutting off like a light bulb.

Chris looked at the girl. He chuckled lightly, before rising to sling the unconscious teenager over his shoulder while carefully wiping the pudding off her face with a paper towel. "Geez, what a kid."

* * *

Samantha dreamt.

In hear mind she tried to make sense of what was happening around her. It had been a week since she had been uprooted from the familiar and unceremoniously plunged into a world very different from her own.

Up until now, peaceful sleep eluded her. Sleeping in her prison was uncomfortable. But sleeping in a nice bed enabled Samantha to finally martial her thoughts.

There was so much she did not understand. Who were these people? Where did they come from and what were they trying to do? They didn't seem to be that bad. The Commodore was a Grade A jerk and there were two psychopaths on board, but everybody else seemed decent enough. They also had two kids on the ship.

How would her family react? Samantha wondered if Alexis was looking for her. Her beloved older sister would search every corner of the galaxy to find her that was for sure. But what about her parents?

What about her father?

Samantha shivered just thinking of his disappointed expression. Leon Manfried Westernfuss would be most displeased she had the gall to be captured by some crazy bunch of oddballs. When she was rescued, her father would prohibit her from leaving the house and force her into an arranged marriage, finally having the "excuse" he always needed to shut her ambitions down.

Samantha was certainly not looking forward to going home.

What about her dream? Samantha honestly didn't know what would happen to it now. Her father would still be against it, that's for sure. What if ZAFT thought her a valuable hero or something? Maybe they'd give her a medal. That would be brilliant! D.S.S.D. would have to take her in then! But then again, there was the possibility she'd have to repeat the year. That would really suck.

And then…

There was the cheese cake.

Somebody on this ship knew she lived for cookies and cream cheesecakes. Not to mention, they knew exactly how she liked it… two strawberries.

That should not have been possible. She was on a ship full of strangers. How had someone here managed to find out about her favorite desert of all time in the span of a week?

What if that person already knew?

So many questions. Samantha's mind could not even begin to answer even one of them. Not to worry though, something inside the sixteen year old girl told her she'd be staying on this ship for more time to come…

* * *

Samantha awoke to find herself back in the bed that had been assigned to her. A quick check on her watch and Samantha had found only two hours had passed since she had passed out. She noted she was in a set of form fitting pajamas. Though somewhat revealing, that was okay.

The fact that a brown haired woman was sharing her bed was the problem.

"Eyaah!" Samantha bolted out of her bed across the room. In her surprise, she stepped on something. Or someone. In moments her face was on the floor and the very sharp edge of a sword was up against her neck.

She just soared across the room onto the killing machine. Smart move Samantha. A slow silence followed.

"…If I considered you an enemy, you'd be dead right now." Shoko said, sheathing the sword and helping the disheveled girl to her feet. "Professor You, these are our quaters. Explain the intrusion."

The light brown haired woman sat up while rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "Ara, ara… so there you were Ms Douglas! I got so tired looking for you that I'd thought that I'd take a little nap." Samantha had a blank expression on her face. Being surprised time and time again on this mental asylum was beginning to seriously tire her out. And she just woke up!

"I see that Presty has made his decision then." Shoko noted.

"He took your advice, just like I'd said he would, Miss Katsura." You beamed. "But then again, I think he decided on her the moment she saw her. I think he likes the girl. He's always had a thing for these underdogs… right Miss Silver Shooting Star?"

"Eh?!" Samantha's first thought was that she not believe her foul luck. Even on an unknown ship her nickname continued to hound her.

"How did you get her name?" Shoko asked sharply, her hand tightening around the blade she kept at her side. Samantha hadn't even managed to think that far before Shoko barked forcefully.

You waved playfully. "Ara, ara, she'd a bit of a celebrity on Aprillius Nine. Miss Silver Shooting Star, Samantha Douglas Westernfuss. Don't worry… me and my husband haven't told anyone yet."

"Keep it that way." Shoko ordered, relaxing her grip on her katana. "Until Samantha is comfortable with telling the crew on her own accord…"

"I suppose you're right. You of all people should know about the value of names." The blade was out this time, the flash of surprise in Shoko's eyes was quickly replaced by anger so intense all the fires in hell were but a candle light in comparison.

"Ara, ara, I've said too much. Things are quite dangerous for me here, so I'll take my leave. Sam, I'll be waiting in the Commodore's office… oh wait he's in the infirmary isn't he… Goodbye." Bowing politely, You left the room. Shoko started at the vacated doorway for some time.

Samantha tried to understand what had just occurred. "Uhhhh…"

"It does not concern you." Shoko stated hardly. Her cold glare shifted to Samantha and the young girl felt her veins turn to ice. The red eye almost glowed from where she was standing. "Very well. We need to get you to the Commodore's room."

Waling over to the wardrobe, Shoko tossed Sam a change of the clothing she was wearing before. "Don't forget to put your underwear on this time."

* * *

Taylor grinned sheepishly at the sixteen year old girl before him. When he last saw her, she had pounded the living shit out of him. Even with the skinsuit he wore, his injuries were still many. 

Well, if she was going to pound him again, she couldn't have picked a better time to do so. Not with his body bandaged up. Good thing Shoko was about two paces behind her, wearing the most annoyed look she had seen on her in a long time.

"Soooo…. Sam Douglas was it?" Taylor said.

"Y-Yes." Samantha said. Taylor was quite amused by the girl. One day here and she had already gained the reputation among the crew as a shameless flasher, a the resident greenhorn and had somehow gotten into the ATX team's good graces… so much so that Shoko had actually expressed interest in giving Samantha the much coveted 'Assault-4' designation.

One look at the girl and Taylor knew Celvice would have approved.

Apparently, the Major saw what she called 'untapped potential' and unbelievingly, was willing to train the girl, a feat none had yet to accomplish before.

Getting such a reputation on his ship so quickly, having both an A.E. project head and Assault-1 scrambling for her services was quite an accomplishment for someone who has only just left solitary confinement. A rough diamond indeed.

Shoko was right, she'd fit right in. Taylor gave hearty thumbs up to the surprised teenager.

"Miss Douglas, on behalf of the crew of the _Kurogane_, welcome aboard."

* * *

_A/N_

_+ The Kurogane did originally have more pilots, but right now they are running with a skeleton crew._

_+ Yes, I just shoved Samantha into a slightly modified version of Ibis' Alpha 2 clothing. I'm thinking I should have ported in the whole character at this point. Now she looks EXACTLY like Ibis, save the ponytail._

_+ Gimmy and Darry are the names of two characters from Tenga Toppan Gurren Lagann. No they are not the same characters; I'm just borrowing their likeliness. _

_+ The Kurogane is like a modern day 21st century aircraft carrier in that most of the things that do are automated on these new spangled space cruisers require actual staff to do. It's quite achronosim consisting of super advanced stuff mixed in with the space clunkers of old._

_+ The specs for a Space Ark class are never actually said, but considering it can fit a whole bunch of real and super robots on it, I'd estimate it has to be at least three, perhaps four, times the size of convential space carriers in Gundam Seed._

_+ Once again, Ariel's views on feminism do not reflect this author's views._

_+ When I first heard Logos in GSD, I misheard it as Lego. It took me some time to realize that Lego had not put in a product placement in a Gundam show. _

_+ I so love embarrassing Sam. I guess I am a bit of a pervert. Anyway, expect this treatment of her to go quite a further bit into the future until she gets used to it. Besides, the soon to be Assault 5 has a bit of notoriety where she comes from and Sam's her unwilling focus of attention especilly since Sam is her 'type'. Just look in the disclaimer and you'll know who she is._

_I'm debating if the next chapter should follow Samantha again or shift to Sean and Alexis' POV, so now preview this time._


	6. Goddess of Victory I

**Disclaimer;**

_I do not own the Gundam Franchise or the Super Robot Wars Franchise. They belong to Sunrise and Banpresto respectively. I do not aim to profit of the use of their intellectual property by using their characters, worlds or mechanized killing machines, only to use those characters to fuel their raging fan base and thus generate more profit for THEM when they next release their next game/anime._

_The Soukou no Strain character Lavina Rebirth and 'takaya" Nono from GunBuster-2! Do not belong to me, they belong to their respective owners."_

_Warning! This story features overpowered "Super Robots" and Hot-blooded Antics in a "Real" Universe. If you wish for your image of the CE timeline to not have a machine that can cleave an entire armada in a single swing, please stop reading and flee for your life. _

_Please Read and Review, but no flames please. _

* * *

**Chapter 006/ The Goddess of Victory: Part I**

* * *

Alexis wondered if it was all a dream. Waking up each passing day, going through the motions, watching news coverage of the _Hercules_ massacre…

Alexis still could not believe her younger sister was dead.

It was supposed to be a routine obstacle course exercise. The threat to the pilot's safety was almost non-existent. Yet somehow, she had come home that fateful day to see Shiho in her living quarters with the gravest news.

An entire battle group, slaughtered to a man. It was the biggest news since the "Break the World" incident. The destruction was so complete; no video recordings survived the slaughter. All they knew was that a terrorist cell had done it.

Sean had come over as soon as he heard the news. For someone supposedly on leave, he got the news very quickly. He tried consoling her, but Alexis was too distraught to care.

Even a rare visit from her normally aloof and distant father, Leon Manfried Westenfuss could not calm her wounded heart.

If some believed that the 'Blood Red Shadow' to be invincible, then they were obviously mistaken. If Alexis had a weakness it would be her love for her two siblings, the late Heine and Samantha Westernfuss.

The Westenfuss siblings were birds of a feather. They idolized each other for their powerful traits; Heine for his chivalry and patriotism, Alexis for her intellect and Samantha for her idealism.

Heine and Alexis, the twins, often took it upon themselves to look after the small Samantha. Her sweet innocence and her fierce burning desire to reach of the stars often was an inspiration to her older siblings. How can someone half their size dream of things they were scared to even accomplish?

For Alexis, it was never about protecting PLANT. Unlike her more patriotic brother, Samantha only wanted to protect her family. The attempt on Samantha's life when she was a child inspired her to do that. Had the two Nakagawas not intervened, Alexis would have attended that funeral long before Heine's.

Gaining the red coat was supposed to give Alexis the power from preventing this from happening.

On the day Heine had perished at the hands of the Gaia Gundam, she had silently vowed at his funeral that Samantha would never meet the same end as Heine, brutally cut down before she could earn her wings.

Then this happened…. before she could even grasp the edges of her dream, Samantha was killed. By murderers. Heine would be turning over in his grave to know the fate of his younger sister's great ambitions.

First she lost her twin brother. Now she had lost her baby sister.

* * *

Aprilius One

Stepping into the office of Lacus Clyne, Alexis did not feel the pride of standing in the presence of one of history's greatest peacemakers. Instead, she felt oddly cold and numb. The hastily prepared service for the Hercules was just a day ago, and she was still feeling the after effects.

"Ah, Lieutenant Westenfuss, sorry to call you in like this." The chairman of the ZAFT supreme council noted. "Good now we can begin."

It took a few minutes for Alexis to realize that she wasn't the only person in the room. As always her stalwart advisor Yzak Joule and the ORB Ambassador Kira Yamato lingered close by, standing just behind her in a ZAFT uniform and an ORB uniform respectively. Standing at attention was Captain Lunamaria Hawke, a war veteran and the soon to be captain of the new _Minerva_ Class assault carrier the _Athena_ and to Alexis' surprise…

"Sean?" The blonde gave a little wave from where he was seated in one of Lacus's reclining chairs, still in his civilian clothing.

"Yo. It seems my vacation is about to come to an early end." Sean joked. "They didn't even give me time to change out of this." He indicated to his clothes.

"At ease Captain Hawke, Lieutenant Westernfuss." Lacus began, allowing the two soldiers to take their own seats. "Once again I apologize for the short notice, but I've called you here today because of new information that has recently come to light. Councilor Joule if you please."

"I am sure you are all familiar with the recent _Hercules_ tragedy, especially so since it was of great personal loss to one of you." Yzak began. "However allow me to first clear up one misconception you three probably have."

Yzak tapped a button on his wristwatch and the doom darkened. Suddenly a video started playing of the presentation screen on the side of the room. The resolution was grainy, Alexis could hardly make out anything through the interference in of the camera.

_Watching from the perspective of a Gouf, three Dom mobile suits encircled a medium sized nondescript shuttle as their comrades slowly joined in, eventually encircling the craft. "Attention unidentified shuttle! Stand down and prepare to be boarded!"_

It didn't take very long for Alexis to figure out what it was.

"This was a video recording of the _Hercules_ incident." Lunamaria stated crossly. "The press release stating that there was no surviving recording was a lie."

It did not surprise anyone in the room that the oldest Hawke sister had issues about the cloak and dagger dealings of politicians, mainly due to her less than stellar experiences with Chairman Durandal and the Destiny Plan. Although Lunamaria knew that sometimes it had to be done, it still did not sit well with her.

Lacus nodded. "Indeed. You'll see why in a second."

"_Attention shuttle, stand down and prepare to be boar-" _

_Suddenly the camera shook violently as if something disastrous had occurred. The camera then_ _shook as the Gouf pilot attempted to jockey for a better view. Then it appeared on screen._

_The Black Astray, and its colossal ship cleaving sword._

Although Lunamaria and Alexis were surprised by the appearance of the sinister mecha, it was the plain clothed officer from ORB who had the biggest reaction.

Sean bolted out of his chair, face pale as if he had seen a ghost. "Astray Rei-shiki! Impossible!"

"That information is highly classified, Lieutenant. From your nation's point-of-view none the less." Yzak replied stiffly. He pause the recording as the Rei-shiki reared back for its first immense blow.

"…And although given your familiarity with the first stages of the original Astray project and the circumstances in which the machine disappeared, your surprise is understandable."

"Astray Rei-shiki?" Alexis enquired confused. The Astray series of mobile suits, the mainstay of Orb's military for may years, supposedly declassified all documents regarding it's development a year ago when the M1-Astray finally left military service in favor of the new M3(P) Muramasa.

With a couple of additions from Lowe Gear and the Serpents Tail, the M1-Astray had officially become most commonly used mobile suit in many civilian circles with the declassification of its source material.

Nothing in those documents said anything about a Rei-shiki.

"…Rei-shiki was the original Astray prototype." Sean said hesitantly as he returned to his seat.

"Correct." Yzak acknowledged.

"The product of the Astray project the public is familiar with is actually the Ni-shiki series, the second series of prototypes developed after the original two prototypes, codenamed Rei-shiki and I-shiki. The Red Frame, Gold Frame and Blue Frame were extrapolations of the later Ni-shiki variety."

Lunamaria folded her arms. "I mean no disrespect Councilor Joule when I say this, but what's the use in covering it up? The Astray itself is six years old and horribly out of date. I mean, today's mobile suits can run circles around them. I find it hard to believe that it could defeat the _Her_…"

Yzak pressed play. Luna and Alexis could only gawk as a single mobile suit effortlessly shredded the entire battle group like tissue paper. Sean could only nod in quiet understanding.

"I never thought I'd see the day when someone would bring out Rei-shiki's potential."

The recording ended when the _Hercules_ went up in a massive ball of fire sending shrapnel everywhere and causing the video to fade to static.

Yzak switched the screen off and the lights came back on. "This recording was taken from the Gouf of Ensign Dylan Gideon, whose Gouf was impaled through the cockpit with debris from the _Repulse_."

Lieutenant General Kira Yamato, who had remained silent until this point, finally spoke up. "ZAFT had originally wanted to release this recording to the general public. However when ORB saw the part the Astray played in wiping out the _Hercules_ battle group, the Chief Representative requested that the tapes be given a level five security classification. The matter was put to the supreme council. It was eventually given a level _six_ classification instead."

"Why?" Alexis stated. "It's just a video recording…"

Sean was the one to answer. His voice was soft, almost haunted. "This state of the art machine went missing during the first Bloody Valentine incident. The project team was on the colony at the time. It was supposed to have been destroyed."

A stagnant silence settled into the room.

"How is it able to do that?" Alexis asked.

"It utilizes a revolutionary operating system that tracks the pilot's movements instead of a standard joystick and pedal configuration. It was dubbed the Motion Trace System, MTS when abbreviated. From a technological standpoint, the system itself was flawless."

Neither Yzak, Lacus nor Kira were surprised that Sean answered Alexis's query. In fact, they expected it.

"The entire machine is designed around that system. The Rei-shiki could imitate the slightest human body movement due to careful placement of motors and specialized ball-and-socket joints in the limbs. Compounded with a motion sensor cockpit, It was thought to make it easy for naturals to pilot."

Alexia was awed by his almost intimate knowledge of something she had not even heard of until today. Questions whirled in her mind. How had he gained this knowledge? Why had he never said anything before? Why did he look so haunted? And the level of the technology he was describing was unheard of.

Lunamaria spoke up, her voice a bit shaky with the information she just learned. "This machine is a monster. Why is the… Ni-Shiki series so conventional in comparison? If ORB had even one platoon of these…" Taking out an entire battle group was something one of the G.U.N.D.A.M. equipped mobile suits were expected to do, not some six year old Astray.

"No one could use the system. The machine was flawless, but the pilots just couldn't keep up. It was too unwieldy; the slightest twitch would cause the machine to move. I was never able to try the machine itself but believe me when I say it's a very disconcerting experience, especially in a Zero Gravity environment. All attempts to fix this problem failed, so the Ni-shiki series went back to the standard control scheme after tests on the MTS failed."

Yzak cut in. "Lieutenant Branstein was a personal acquaintance of one of the original project coordinators of the Astray Project. Aside from Erica Simmons, no one in the Earth Sphere knows the MTS system as thoroughly as he does."

Lacus rose from her desk and walked to the screen as another display flickered into existence. "According to the intelligence, the documents that were stolen from the Archives were the plans for the Genesis-class gamma ray cannon." The gasps that echoed around the room merely illustrated the severity of that information.

"We still have not determined who these terrorists are, but given their current actions and their capabilities, we cannot allow them to continue as they please." Lacus declared. "Intel has estimated that that they are an organization roughly the size of the original Logos. Given that they have somehow adapted the Rei-shiki for use, we can assume that they have immense resources at their disposal." The image shimmered to show an organizational chart showing a command hierarchy. It showed no names, rather just code names and numerical designations.

"After discussions with the Chief Representative Attha, ZAFT and ORB are forming a specialized taskforce to deal with this new threat. Captain Hawke, your ship, the _Athena_, is ZAFT's most advanced vessel. It will be the flagship of this strike force. Lieutenant Westenfuss, you will be the wing commander on the _Athena_ with a handpicked team of pilots from a pool of both the ORB defense forces and ZAFT."

Alexis briefly wondered why she was picked for the job. ZAFT had better pilots in their arsenal. Shin Asuka was the first and foremost that came to mind. Not to mention she was still reeling from the loss of her sister. That should be enough to remove her from the list of candidates.

Why her?

"Lieutenant Branstein, your familiarity with the Rei-shiki Astray will be invaluable. ORB has offered your services to ZAFT, but only if your wish to accept this assignment." Kira addressed his subordinate. "I know this has many bad memories for you. Erica Simmons from Morgenroete has volunteered to accompany the battle group, so accepting this…"

"I accept." Sean said firmly. He hated when people gave him special treatment because he was a "failed coordinator". More importantly, he needed to get to the bottom for the Rei-shiki's sudden reappearance. It was personal for him.

Yzak nodded. "Very well. Your orders are to prepare for departure as soon as possible and head for Ame-no-Mihashira where two Kusanagi Class carriers, the _Shoyu_ and the _Ayanami_, and an Archangel Class assault carrier will join you. The _Defiant _will accompany you."

Yzak paused for effect. "The objectives of this mission will be to find, and if possible capture, these terrorists. Your dedicated task force will have all the resources ZAFT and ORB has at their disposal and everyone in your taskforce will be awarded FAITH rank. We are dealing with an unknown threat, discretion is advised."

"What will be name of this task force sir?" Lunamaria asked.

The image on the display shifted to a bell and shield emblem. Lacus spoke. "It's name shall be…"

* * *

"… Londo Bell?" The man burst into laughter. "She actually gave their taskforce the name Londo Bell?" The man was sitting at his desk in a hospital ward like environment in front of a desktop computer. The room was deathly pale, and the various high-tech equipment suggested that its owner was something of an inventor. It also had a large metal bed that had a presently unconscious blond woman lying on it.

"I can hardly believe it myself. When I suggested it to the Chief Representative, a personal joke on a whim I might add, I never actually thought it would actually go that far." The well dressed platinum blond haired man on the other end of the video call responded.

The professor was a purple haired main with golden eyes. His white lab coat worn over a formal suit and tie gave him an aura of intelligence and wisdom. His overly polite form of speech bordered on feminine, and the sly smirk he always wore often gave other the impression he had something… deadly in mind.

On the other end of the line was a well built tall man, dressed man in a long teal coat. His waist length platinum blond hair and azure blue eyes gave him a chivalrous feel. His honest and noble demeanor often won him admirers. Despite being only twenty nine years old, he carried a wisdom most people twice his age would not possess.

Quite the pair.

"Sieg, my friend… funny or not I think the name for that task force will be a good one." The professor grinned devilishly at the thought. "The name Londo Bell is something of a legend to the U.C.E. When they realize that their foes bear the name many of them so revere, can you imagine how they would react? It would be interesting to see wouldn't it?"

Siegfried Tem Ray, Sieg to his friends, shook his head disapprovingly. "They will be none to pleased I am sure. Shun, do you really think that a single ZAFT strike force can defeat the _Kurogane_? From my perspective, I can't see that happening."

Shun Shurakawa snorted in amusement. "Neither do I. Depleted as its forces currently are, there is no force on the Earth's Sphere that can defeat them in single combat, let alone the other forces that will no doubt reinforce its efforts… But they will buy us time."

"Any new news's on Westernfuss' daughter? Other than she's probably captured."

"That's changed to 'probably captured' to 'definitely captured'. They've probably converted her to their cause already. Putting her sister in charge of Londo Bell's wing will neutralize her easily enough. We may even be able to re-capture her…"

"Still going on about that? We lost remember? Even Leon knows how dangerous she can become. I still think he's a cold bastard for voting against us though."

Shu shrugged amusedly. "Then I suppose she's lucky she got captured by them then." Sieg frowned. Shu was always nonchalant at time like this, like everything was just a game to him. He knew it was not truly the case and that the man did actually care, but sometimes this attitude was, for the lack of a better word, annoying. "And what about our… other plans?"

"On schedule. It would be best if we kept them to ourselves. Open channel."

Sieg checked the time and nodded. "Well, I'd better get going. The _Ra Caillum_ is about to make a departure in the hour. The ship needs her captain." Shu smirked. "Good hunting old friend." Sieg hung up.

"Was that Captain Ray?" a slurred voice murmured from observation table. The woman stirred. Her blue eyes wandered over to Shun who closed the connection and turned off the computer monitor.

"Yes it was. Now that you're finally awake, how do you feel?" The woman pushed herself off the table, letting the sheet fall off her body as she flexed her muscles. She gave a few experimental stretches while Shun leaned against the far wall.

She picked up a one of his stainless steel scanners and crushed it in her hands.

She smiled with satisfaction.

"Perfect."

"Please refrain from destroying my equipment." Shun sighed. "If you do this every time your cybernetics need a checkup, I'll have to petition to the board to ban you from my lab. Your clothes are on the counter, Captain Caldwell."

* * *

Sean made it back into his hotel room in record time and began to pack, his mind working a mile a minute to process what had just happened.

The Rei-shiki shouldn't be there.

Of all the things, that was the one fact Sean could not ignore.

Kamina's death heralded beginning of his "spiral of despair". It was the stage of his life that he was most haunted by. It took him years to properly get over it.

In his heart, he had never gotten over it.

The Rei-shiki's reemergence was like a ghost rising from its grave. A flood of bad memories that he often kept locked away in the back of his mind came flooding back.

Such was the burden of a survivor of the Bloody Valentine.

Pausing in his packing, Sean pulled a spare of his out his red, blue and white ORB uniform from his suitcase on the hotel bed.

Not for the first time since the day he enlisted, Sean wondered what he was fighting for.

When he had first donned the uniform, his rationale was that he would protect the world she had left behind. Years later, he wasn't so sure anymore, especially after what he did at Antarctica.

How could he say he was fighting for the future when he was killing kids? Maybe they were Phantom Pain's "Human Computers". Maybe, as Cagalli had put it, he shouldn't think too deeply into the matter. All he knew was that the station he was on was being attacked by Phantom Pain, and that he needed to do his duty.

He did his duty.

He did his duty too well.

On the last day of their campaign, Sean had finally managed to capture one of the bogeys. He and his staff were horrified to pull a ten year old girl out of that GATX-105-MP Strike. It was the day that final ray of hope died within him. The whole story came out after that.

Many critics were right. He was a better pilots than what the press release made him out to be. The Phantom Pain members were the latest batch of living computers, and they were dangerous. But they were still children. Children he knew she would have tried to save. Children that did not deserve the fate he had dealt them.

It didn't help that the girl he spared later committed suicide in captivity, unwilling to go on without her brother and sisters.

Cagalli had personally pardoned him and everyone under his command for their actions, and even gave them medals to show for it. Following that, she promptly shoved the file containing all the documents relating to campaign into the deepest darkest recesses of the ORB archives that she could find. The media painted him a hero, not the murderer he really was. They thought he killed soldiers. They didn't know he killed children.

Sean never believed he deserved it, the medal. He always thought that Cagalli had only done that out of a misplaced belief she owed a personal obligation to… her.

Naturally his thoughts went to her.

They always went to her.

Meeting his would-be sister-in-law was probably what dragged out the memories in the first place. Samantha was so much like her. The idealistic twinkle in her eyes, the drive to reach for the stars, it was all there.

Even that small detail where she couldn't make a suit move without tripping over.

It was almost funny at first. He entertained the thought that perhaps the 'powers that be' would allow Samantha to succeed where she had failed. The times were more peaceful, less turbulent. The perfect climate for pioneers to carve their name into the history books.

Then_Hercules_ happened. Sean felt like he was back in his old apartment, opening the door to see a grim Cagalli Yula Attha, personally coming to give him the words he never wanted to hear.

The old rage he kept under his calm exterior boiled like hot magma… as did the guilt.

Even when his announcement to Shiho was made, no doubt breaking her heart, she endured and refused to give in. Because she loved him.

Even when she realized she would be a hopeless mobile suit pilot because of the injury HE caused her, robbing her of her dream, she still kept going. Because she wanted to protect him.

Even after ORB fell, she kept going for that one far off chance they would meet again. For a world in which coordinators and naturals could exist in the same time.

Sean was nowhere near as strong as she was.

How ironic. Maybe Rai was right. All he was now was a man going through the motions. He truly was unworthy of her.

Suddenly he was overcome with a coughing fit. Oh damn. He must have forgotten to take his meds again. Reaching into his hooded jacket, he produced a small pill container. He popped them into his mouth.

The doctors said he'd been abusing the treatment. The stress the drugs were having on his body was… not good. If he kept this up, his body might sustain permanent damage. They remarked it was good that he was retiring soon. If he told them he would be joining Londo Bell, they would probably advise him against it.

Sean wondered how long before they tried to have him forcefully removed from the roster.

Screw them.

Folding his uniform and stuffing it neatly into his suitcase, his eyes wandered onto a manila folder her always carried in that suitcase. The manuscript.

"Sakura… I wonder… what would you think of this whole mess?"

As if to punish him for his indecisiveness so many years ago, the deathly silence was his only reply.

When Sean finally arrived at the docks, this time wearing his uniform and carrying his suitcase by the handle, he was greeted by the sight of the Destiny Gundam being loaded onto the _Athena_ on a trailer.

The_Athena_ herself was a sight to behold. Painted a pale azure hue with the Londo Bell emblem painted onto her hull, every Minerva Class assault carrier built was a marvel of ZAFT engineering. They were the symbol of ZAFT's pride, and in another year, ORB's Intel estimated it would overtake the Nasca class as ZAFT's ship of the line in terms of ship numbers.

Although its record was forever marred by the role the first ship of its class was forced to play in the war two years ago, subsequent roles in the peacekeeping and humanitarian efforts have catapulted the line of ships into an almost legendary status.

Sean never thought he would be serving on one of these.

Striding up the docking ramp onto one of the massive hangars was not the most orthodox way to get into the ship, but as a mobile suit pilot, there was one thing Sean needed to confirm first. Especially after seeing a load of ZAFT's new Hi-Zacks being loaded onto the ship.

Trying not to get in the way as the dockhands and grease monkeys went about their business, Sean sighed in relief as he saw his faithful M2-Murasame, his 'Trombe', safely undergoing maintenance checks.

Sean's custom painted Murasame was just like any ordinary Murasame, save the fact it wielded two beam rifles, one in each hand, instead of one. It usually kept its shield secured on its left shoulder while being in mobile suit form, allowing the suit to have greater freedom of movement with its two beam rifles.

Unlike some other pilots, Sean had a great fondness for his mobile suit. Where most other ORB pilots had ditched their machines for the latest M4-Muramasa the first chance they had, Sean stubbornly held onto his aging Murasame despite the changing times. He supposed it was due to his preference of speed over firepower offered by the M4.

Sure the M4 had enormous firepower and twice as much armor as earlier models, but it still could not outrun his Trombe in wave rider form.

Getting to where he needed to go was the priority. Working out what he needed to do when he got there, he could worry about later.

"Well. At least Trombe is here." Sean mused. "I wonder who else is here…"

"Brother." Sean's heart stopped cold. Slowly turning around, Sean met the cold gaze of Rai Fredric Branstein. Dressed in a pale grey commander's uniform, the ZAFT officer's burning gaze bored into the elder Branstein.

"Hello Rai."

Rai was the only member of his family he had yet to reconcile with. The one member of his family he feared to meet above all else.

Turing to face his brother, dressed in the red uniform, Rai had the coldest eyes Sean had the displeasure of experiencing. Sean knew that even after over half a decade his sibling still hated his guts. And for good reason.

"It's good to see you Rai." Sean tried his best to sound casual.

"I would rather we not talk anymore than we had to." Rai responded coldly. "Captain Hawke wishes to see you. Do not keep her waiting."

Rai regarded his brother as something so detestable that words could even begin to describe his hatred for the man. Rai did not _WANT_ to work with this man. But for the good of PLANT, Rai would bear with it.

"I'll be right over." Sean walked past this younger brother, his eyes never meeting the younger man. The sheer maliciousness was so much that the younger brother didn't even want to have anything to do with his older sibling. Whether he lived or died, the man no longer cared. As far has Rai was concerned, Sean Branstein did not exist.

Or rather, Sean Raymond Branstein did not deserve to exist.

* * *

_A/N The tine is quite different isn't it? Well, unfortunately, we have one more chapter of this to go though before we get to see Samantha's first experience with a _'_skinsuit_'_. I would also like to thank my proofreader Dreamers LTD, who had managed to point out a potentially disastrous error in my writing before it could be released._

_+ Yes, Sakura's brother was the one who foiled the assignation attempt. _

_+ Kamina allowed Sakura to hang around while he worked despite Erica ragging on him. This allowed Erica and Sakura to get to know each other, a relationship that came into play after Kamina's death. Sean knows most of this knowledge from information given to him by Sakura and later Erica herself._

_+ I should have mentioned it before, but Sean needs medication on a regular basis. _

_+ The MTS in this story is of the SRW variety. I briefly toyed with the idea of using the one from G Gundam, but body full body spandex suits don't appeal to me, much less when somebody like Shoko is using it._

_+ I practically butchered the Canon Astray project. I thought this could explain the versatility and potential of the M1 Astray since every pilot who has bothered to tune their Astray even a bit can turn an MP suit into a can of whoop-ass. _

_+The Professor is my equivalent of Shu Shirakawa._

_+ The man he is talking to his my equivalent of Zechs with a splash of Amuro Ray. Yes, that is a non-SRW reference._

_+ Unlike Elzam who is a fantastic cook, Sean writes music, hence the manuscript. He hasn't really composed anything good in a while though, being a soldier and all._

_+ The Hi-Zack is the Titan's mainstay mobile suit from ZETA Gundam that was quickly replaced by other, slightly more effective suits. Given that ZAFT's/Terminal's last suit was the DOM and the Gelgoog supposedly was floating around in the CE somewhere, I thought the trend should continue, except using Titan designs instead._

_+ M4-Muramasa is based on the FAZZ from Gundam Sentinel, just like how the M2-Murasame was based on the original Zeta Gundam_

_+ Of course, Sean has to nickname his robot "Trombe!"_

_Omake!_

_-Don't touch my Machine!-_

"There is nothing my Zankanto cannot cut." Shoko stubbornly maintained. By this point, Marty wanted to punch something in sheer frustration.

Not Shoko mind you. If he tried something like that, a quick and painless death would be quickly be at the top of his wish list. When Shoko tortured people, she could really drag things out.

Why was he here again? Oh yes.

Place? A.E.'s mobile research facility 'La Vie En Rose' in orbit around Titan.

Time Frame? Shortly before they were to enter the Earth sphere on an extended mission.

Topic? Shoko's Zankanto.

The Problem?

Marty took a deep breath before attempting to make the swordswoman see reason for the umpteenth time in a single evening. "With all due respect Major, Phase Shift armor is impervious to all kinetic weapons. This includes your Zankanto. Now unless you allow my team to make some modifications…"

He had taken one tour of the 'La Vie En Rose' and decided to appropriate some of their research for his own purposes. Namely, making the much needed upgrades he had felt the aging arsenal of the ATX team needed in a long time. Hassaway had okayed every single one of his recommendations. All he had to do was convince certain pilots to accept his upgrades. Easier said than done though.

"There is nothing my Zankanto cannot cut."

"Look, I have direct orders from Hassaway right here. You have to let us install just this one module on your precious Zankanto and then we'll be on our way."

"There is nothing my Zankanto cannot cut!"

After two hours of hearing the same line being repeated to his face, Marty finally lost it. "Yes, yes. You are the sword that carves shit into iddy bitty pieces. But that over-sized butter knife is going to snap like a twig when you try to cleave Freedom with it! Now… I am giving you this upgrade completely free of charge…"

"There is NOTHING my Zankanto CANNOT cut!"

"Oh fuck it! Don't come crying to me when your precious kitchen cleaver suddenly half as long! Pack it up people!"

Marty brushed past his tormentor, who gave a victorious snort that further infuriated the young mechanic, he checked off the M1 Astray from his checklist. Good, that was one less mech to worry about.

Beowulf had rejected his proposal for a larger horn. Loveless had refused the beam crossbow as a replacement for her Phantom Phoenix and now the Major had tossed out his simple Phase Armor addition to the Zankanto.

Such lack of appreciation for the mechanic. Why wouldn't anyone let him touch those glorious machines?

Well, he had that one last thing…

---

"You are NOT touching the Kurogane's drill!"

"But Commodore!"

"That drill has been on the Kurogane's bow since time immemorial! It contains many dear memories for me…"

"You flew the crew's laundry from it! That is not a good memory! I took a poll and I can safely say that crew would be quite happy to see it gone."

"You are NOT touching the Kurogane's drill!"

_-Owari-_


	7. Goddess of Victory II

Disclaimer:

_I do not own the Gundam Franchise or the Super Robot Wars Franchise. They belong to Sunrise and Banpresto respectively. I do not aim to profit of the use of their intellectual property by using their characters, worlds or mechanized killing machines, only to use those characters to fuel their raging fan base and thus generate more profit from THEM when they next release their next game/anime._

_The Soukou no Strain character Lavina Rebirth and 'Takaya' Nono from DieBuster! Do not belong to me, they belong to their respective owners."_

_Warning! This story features overpowered 'Super Robots' and Hot-blooded Antics in a 'Real' Universe. If you wish for your image of the CE timeline to not have a machine that can cleave an entire armada in a single swing, please stop reading and flee for your life. I"ve been watching too much Gurren Lagann and Getter Robo for this story to be sane._

_Please Read and Review, but no flames please. As much as burning flames of righteous passion are cool, I'm highly flammable. So no flames please. Constructive criticism welcome_

* * *

Chapter 007 The Goddess of Victory II

* * *

2nd Lieutenant Shinn Asuka subconsciously smoothed out his red uniform before entering Lunamaria's ready room.

After the Second Bloody Valentine War, Shinn had expected his following days to be very difficult. He was one of Durandal's firmest supporters (even today, Shinn refused to be thought of as a puppet) and had played a major part in the destiny plan. He wasn't mistaken.

Although Lieutenant General Kira Yamato and Colonel Arthrun Zala had personally vouched for him, something Shinn to this day failed to understand, Shinn found himself demoted back down to ensign, stripped of his red uniform and had his FAITH status revoked in within a week of the signing of the armistice.

Not that it surprised him. Many of the victors seemed to regard him with an element of distrust. Shinn could not blame them. Even till this day, he could honesty say he sill held some, okay quite a bit of, resentment against them for killing Rey and so many others. He was only human.

Shin had lost count of the number of times he had been passed over for promotion. In fact, the last time he had gotten one was six months ago, when Yzak Joule came all the way done from Aprillius One to the far off lunar outpost he was stationed at and literally threw a red coat at him.

"Keep up the good work," Joule said. At least Shinn knew his efforts were being recognized… somewhere. Even if it just putting down the occasional space pirate.

It was a miracle that they neglected to take the Destiny away from him.

He supposed it was because for all their disdain for him, they recognized he had SOME skill in a mobile suit. They even let him keep its power generator despite it being a clear violation of the treaty.

Shinn was thankful that Luna did not suffer from the penalties he did due to the lesser part she played in Durandral's plans. As opposed to his magnificent fall from grace, she on the other hand soon made Commander, then Captain, and now was finally getting her own ship. Her diligence and hard work had made her an incredible asset to ZAFT.

But that was not the reason as to why Shinn was incredibly nervous.

He dumped her a few months after the war. Shinn felt he was using her as a rebound for Stellar, and thought it best that he work it though on his own. So, five weeks and six days after the end of the war he quietly requested a reassignment and basically left without saying a word. As always, his impulsive behavior was always his greatest failing.

Two months later Meyrin Hawke tracked him down and boy, did she ever let him have it. She told him Luna had been devastated when he left, that his selfish actions had once again hurt someone close to him. While Shinn had tried to defend himself as he always did, he truly underestimated the fury of a sister scorned.

It was the first time Shinn had ever seen the younger of the Hawke sisters' that angry. He still had nightmares about how she skillfully tore apart his arguments, confronted him the entirety of all his wrongdoings and then when he slapped her, Meyrin's response was three times as painful as anything he could do to her. She just looked at him with the coldest glare she could muster, called him a selfish bastard, and promptly kicked him in the family jewels as hard as she could.

Young, sweet Meyrin Hawke kicking someone in the balls. Before that day such a notion would have been completely ridiculous to him.

Even though she was expelled from the base for that by security, she more or less made her point. Shinn had been dreading this meeting ever since.

Normally, not receiving such a vital position as the wing commander to the Londo Bell battle group would have sent Shinn into a rage. In fact he almost did until he found out Luna was in charge. After that one discovery, he tried every trick in the book to ensure he wasn't one of Alexis Westernfuss' handpicked pilots. He even considered tending in his resignation at one point.

No such luck. Now here he was, standing outside her doorway. Shinn took a deep breadth. "Captain Hawke, its 2nd Lieutenant Asuka. Permission to-"

"Come in."

Shin steeled himself... and took the first step forward.

* * *

Alexis watched as the last of her senior pilots strode though the doorway.

She was told to pick two squadrons of mobile suit pilots, herself being the commander of one squadron and a second in command of her choice in charge of the other. Shinn Asuka was a no brainier. He was the pilot of the Destiny and ZAFT's most fearsome ace. If anyone could take down the Rei-shiki Astray, it would be him.

Her fiancé had sat opposite from her on another chair the cramped ready room. Alexis had yet to speak with Sean since that morning, but she had been extremely busy in making those preparations. Alexis wanted the best on her team. Dearka Elsman, Mikhail Coast... heck she even tried to get Shiho to come out of retirement!

She intended to bring the full might of ZAFT down onto those terrorists.

But in the end, all she was able to get was Shinn Asuka because he was the only one of the aces not really doing anything. Dearka was off hunting some space pirates who decided to make a run for Mars of all places, the recent disaster meant Shiho was needed at the academy now more than ever, and as for Mikhail Coast… well, he's Coast.

Did she really expect him to show up? He probably thought they were off hunting ducks or something along those lines. Capturing the surviving members of Phantom Pain was much more appealing to him, believing them a particularly resilient disease that refused to die.

There rumor's about his activities regarding captured phantom pain members, but this was something Alexis knew she would do well to stay away from.

Well. She had to make do with what she was able to scrounge together. Rai F. Branstein and the members of the Garstein family she recruited were nothing to sneeze at either. Jean Carry had hopped on board when he heard the news, but was with their reinforcements.

Perhaps it was her way of putting her grief out of mind. More likely it was just a boiling desire for vengeance. Right now, Alexis wanted those terrorists to burn.

"2nd Lieutenant Asuka, reporting for duty, Ma-am." Asuka saluted. "My apologies for the delay, I wanted to make absolutely sure my suit was safely on board."

"Understood Lieutenant, at ease." Captain Hawke said. Alexis made a mental note that Shinn and Luna were deliberately avoiding eye contact with each other. It could be a problem later. Alexis made a mental note to talk to Shinn about it later.

Captain Hawke folded her arms and tried to smile warmly despite the presence of Shinn in the room. "Anyway, first off I would like to welcome you three aboard the _Athena_. I would first like to present you three the FAITH badges to make the promotion official."

She pushed the three small velvet boxes across her desk towards her subordinates. In those boxes were of course the FAITH emblems. Although the prestige of those emblems was not as prominent as they once were, the promotion was still a huge honor being granted, especially to Sean and Shinn given. One wasn't even directly affiliated with ZAFT and the other a disgraced ex-FAITH member.

"I would also like to inform you that all of you are hence-forth promoted to the rank of Commander, or in Sean's case Colonel," Luna explained.

"The structure of Londo Bell is quite different from any of the organizations we were originally from. Westernfuss and Asuka will be in charge of all of the Mobile suit teams in our entire battle group, while Branstein will be one of our main Authorities on the Rei-shiki and the commander of the non ZAFT elements of our fleet."

"I heard that Jean Carry and Eric Simmons from Morgenroete will be accompanying us," Shinn queried.

Lunamaria nodded. "That is correct. They is currently on the _Ayanami_, which brings me to our next point. Our first order of business will be to rendezvous with the _Kusanagi_-class ships ORB has granted us. I originally wanted to meet them at the Ame-no-Mihashira, but…"

Lunamaria paused, thinking as to how to best phrase this. "Intel has traced the trajectory of the shuttle to a heat source that seemed to be heading for the moon. It's vanished from sensor, but Intel thinks they knew where it was headed. Intel deduces there is a good chance that the terrorists are using the Lunar City of _Von Braun_ as a base. I've ordered the ORB ships to get underway, and we'll meet them on route."

"Von Braun?" Sean cursed, echoing the sentiments of the four people in the room. "But isn't that a civilian city that is under the protection of the Atlantic Federation? We can't just charge in there, not without a proper warrant. And getting that could take weeks, even with Clyne's backing."

"We're not going to do anything," Lunamaria explained. "That's not the problem. The plan was for Londo Bell to wait in a safe distance from_Von Braun_…"

"…and wait for them to come out? What they are not even there? We could be waiting there for months and they could be escaping in a different direction!" Alexia fumed.

"Actually we already have a solution to that, but that solution is a problem in itself," Lunamaria sighed before turning to Sean. "So, Sean, do you remember a man named Michael Curran?"

Sean made a low groaning sound and palmed his face.

"I was really hoping to avoid that..."

* * *

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Sean complained as he punched the final key in the communications console. After the conference Sean had gone straight over to the nearest long range commutations station her could find, which happened to be the one on the bridge, and dialed the number.

Both the communications officer and Lunamaria were hovering over him as Sean dialed the number.

'I can't believe I'm doing this,' he thought. The dial tone rang. Why did he have to be the one to call Michael? Damn, he should have gotten Asuka to do this. 'I still can't believe I'm doing this,' he reflected again. with a soft 'click', the line was picked up.

"This is Curran, I'll take any dirty job as long as it's not from ORB, ZAFT or the EA. Shoot."

"Curran, it's me, Sean Bran-" Click. Michael hung up. Sean looked at the black video screen with a resigned expression. "I just knew I shouldn't have called his work phone."

Sean glanced over to Lunamaria who had an astonished look on her face. "Wasn't he your subordinate?" Sean moaned.

This was going to be a long day.

* * *

"…so this 'Londo Bell' wants me to go in there and scope the place out for them," Michael reiterated with a hint of annoyance and exasperation. "Sean, as much as I like you, you know I HATE working for _those_ people. Not after the shit we went through."

"Not even for world peace?" Sean tried to joke.

"Not even for world peace!" Michael confirmed. "Look mate, that day we pulled that kid out of that suit, I swore on my grand-pop's grave I'd never work for one of the big boys ever again. I've had it up to here with the superpowers. ORB included."

Sean recalled that fateful day he and the only other mobile suit pilot on his base walked into the hangar and saw the kid being lifted out of the ruined suit.

It was overwhelming for both of them.

Despite the revelation, Sean had stuck with ORB. It was hardly high command's fault the enemy threw kids into the battle, and he was the one who pulled the trigger.

Michael on the other hand, tendered his resignation the very next day and struck out on his own. From what Sean knew, Michael had turned mercenary, fighting for small young nations like the fledging lunar cities he was now touring.

Unaffiliated with any nation, a top notch mobile suit pilot and currently residing in a small lunar hamlet just a few kilometers south of Von Braun, Michael couldn't be in a better position to investigate the city without raising a single eyebrow.

Problem was getting the guy to do it.

Michael was stubborn as hell. Sean had a better chance at winning the lottery than convincing the Mercenary to do this one job. Michael was more for the satisfaction of having done something worthwhile instead of the money.

Sean had to try something different. "Michael, what's your current job?"

"Protecting the Galleria settlement. Wait... what's that got to do with anything?"

Bingo. Sean tried not to let the smirk into his voice. "Those terrorists might be going to park themselves in Galleria's backyard. Are you sure you want to just leave them alone without scouting them out first?"

Michael was silent for a while.

"Fine. I might as well. If they decide to come out and take some pot shots at MY wards, I'll be bad for my rep. That is if they are even there," Michael relented. "Besides, my trigger finger was getting restless lately, nothing out here but second rate bandits and wannabe highway men."

"Thanks old friend."

"Hey don't thank me. Just doing my job. And I'll be expecting you guys to jump in if they DO turn out to be in there, I'm good, but I don't fancy taking on an entire squadron of mobile suit pilots on my own," Michael stated clearly before ending the message abruptly.

"That went well," Lunamaria commented from beside him.

"For a second there I thought he'd blow me off completely," Sean admitted as he let out a shaky breadth. Stepping away from the console, the coordinator let the designated officer return to her seat. "Well, at least he'd scope out the place."

"Will he contact us if he finds anything?"

"I wouldn't bet on it," Sean chucked, knowing exactly what his subordinate would do. "Michael is doing this inspection on behalf of Galleria, not Londo Bell. But we'll know when he finds something. Trust me."

Lunamaria looked at Sean curiously. "How?"

"You'll see."

* * *

"What a day. I hope I don't run into any more old faces." Sean exclaimed aloud, stretching his arms after leaving the bridge.

Sean decided to explore the _Athena_ to familiarize himself with his new station. Having never served on a Minerva-class assault carrier before, serving aboard one of these mighty vessels was a rare experience for the ORB ace.

Wandering around the mighty battleship, Sean was mildly amused to see two of his younger cousins on board. Subaru N. Garstein and Tiana A. Garstein were his distant cousin from his mother's side. Like the Branstein clan, many of their members had strong ties to ZAFT, so Sean wasn't too surprised to see them bickering in the rec room.

Only a year out of the academy, neither girl had been able to see any real action given they had just missed the war. From the looks of it, they were quite eager to prove themselves worthy of the Garstein family name.

Since they seemed to be busy and he was never quite close to his relatives who stayed on the PLANTs, Sean chose to move on.

A further brief tour of engineering, the cafeteria and munitions, and Sean had finally tied himself out for the day. He was quite tempted to go back to the hanger and check on his Murasame, but his apprehension about meeting his younger brother Rai prevented him from doing so.

Eventually Sean retired to his quarters, his tiredness finally getting the better of him.

Popping two specialized pain killers into his mouth, Sean plopped himself down on his bed and slept, once again his mind going back to a time when his soul was not so weary…

* * *

_He never told anyone this, but Sean had a theory. He always associated this theory with the memory of Sakura's funeral._

_It wasn't much of a theory really. He supposed he must have been crazy to be even thinking of it. But given the circumstances in which the idea what spawned it in his mind, Sean supposed it was understandable._

_On the day the authorities finally decided the missing girl was dead, ironically not long after he had received the KIA notice stating she, or rather the woman she had become, had been killed in Jachin Due, her surviving friends had finally held a small modest funeral for her._

_Some decried the funeral and stubbornly clung onto hope she would return from where she vanished to. Rai was of this category, and although he had now… 'accepted' her death, Rai still hated Sean for giving up so easily, hating him for not even trying._

_Hated him for abandoning her._

_Some welcomed it, stating that perhaps it was better to have just this one peace of mind. Shiho was of this kind, not knowing the horrifying truth for Sakura's violent passing. Even with the knowledge he had, Sean could not hate Shiho for it, for he new that the truth of her friend's demise would most surely devastate her._

_Sean never really gave the old saying 'Ignorance is bliss' merit until that day. He hoped she would never find out about what he knew._

_Only two in the crowd knew of the true fate of the one called Sakura Nakagawa. They had advised her against it, especially now that the damage to her eyes had been sustained, but she had her mind set on finishing her brother's work._

_Even though it was that determination that robbed her of her life, perhaps it was that same determination that made her special._

_The day on which it was held was a bright sunny day. Perhaps it was Sakura's was of trying to get them to cheer up from where she was beyond, but Sean would have preferred it to be raining. Such a wonderful person did not deserve this modest sendoff. The heavens should be crying for this tragedy._

_It was then that a small stray thought entered Sean's mind. A small treasonous thought entered his mind._

_What had she died for really? _

_That was what his mind kept asking. _

_For the ORB? For every the peace of the earth sphere? For the welfare of humanity's future?_

_Somehow, he felt that this whole thing was... wrong. While his mind and heart were swimming in a pool of grief, there was something else that bothered him. Something in every fiber of his body, his very soul, resounded in excruciating pain._

_It told her that Sakura's death, no, every death in this war, was for nothing… _

_Sean almost slapped himself after the funeral. How could he think that! The hard won peace through the blood of many good men and women was for nothing? Ashamed, Sean pushed the thought out his mind, throwing himself into his new duties as an officer of the Orb defense force and almost forgot about it._

_Almost._

_That small treasonous thought that he had tried to hard to bury spawned uneasy feelings in every fiber of his being. Dormant feelings, but feelings that resurfaced every now and then._

_They first surfaced at the 'Break the world' incident. A survivor to the 'Bloody Valentine', Sean was horrified to see another horrific tragedy unfold again. The second catastrophe was many things. It was a sickening display of humanity's darker side, it was devastating to the planet…_

…_it's after effects were almost exactly the same as the previous tragedy._

_Just like how the coordinators were rallied against the naturals by the destruction of that one colony, the naturals were united against the PLANTs by a similar event._

_The events that followed there like a horrible replay of the first war. Battles erupted in all the same theaters they had occurred previously and the battle lines were drawn exactly like they were before… it was almost as if in some areas of the world time had rewound itself back to the gold old days of CE 71._

_Of course, Sean who was previously an arts student at ORB University major knew all about history repeating itself. Humanity had plenty of bad habits. So Sean simply put down his paranoia to the side effects of the pain reducing drugs his physicians kept warning him about._

_Even after the battle of Heavens Gate, the second siege of ORB, the more or less official declaration of war by Terminal on ZAFT and the announcement for Durandral's perverted destiny plan, Sean kept those thoughts to herself. Those drugs had some serious side effects, he kept telling himself._

_But of course, there had to be a limit to ridiculousness._

_The repetition of the Battle of Jachin Due know known as the Battle of Messiah was the straw that finally broke Sean's back. While he had never actually participated in either battle himself, every account he had heard of the battle made Sean sick to his stomach._

_History repeating itself a decade or two later was one thing, but an almost exact replay of a battle just a couple of years prior?_

_Some believed in coincidences, Sean wasn't one of them._

_Sean decided to look into it. Taking every piece of information he could find, Sean analyzed both bloody valentine wars with only the tenacity an obsessed man would have. What he saw made him want to get himself checked into a mental facility._

_First the rapid advancement of technology, rushing through designs for war purposes was a proven necessity during wartime, but the rapid advancement of weaponry during the second was just surreal. The huge advancements in technology were almost unnatural. _

_Variable Speed Beam weapons? Phase Shift Armor? N-J Cancellers? Such technologies should have taken decades to perfect, let alone months!_

_If Sean were ever to make a presentation of his findings in respect to this, the G.U.N.D.A.M.s would be his main exhibit. Armed to the teeth with cutting edge weaponry, each mobile suit of that class could bring down an entire fleet single-handedly. Most ordinary suits couldn't even scratch these behemoths, and just one machine could tear trough entire formations of enemies in moments. Destiny at Heaven's Gate came to mind, as well as the Freedom and Justice at the Battle of Jachin Due._

_The second issue was that many of the events that occurred in the second war had their parallels in the first. The siege of ORB, in which he participated in as a defender, was his best example. It was only at the last moment where Strike Freedom and Infinite Justice joined in battle did they repel the enemy. That one alone battle drew parallels with both the first siege of ORB and the battle of Alaska._

_It was a pity he fell ill with over exertion just a day later and was removed from the roster because of his condition. Sean would have given his left hand to witness the battle of Jachin Due redux in person._

_The carbon copy of the Treaty of Jachin Due banning the future use of nuclear arms and prohibiting the use of certain technologies was the last straw. He was now in a new golden age of peace, and it was almost in exactly in the same place as it was before the second war had ignited._

_Having parallels was one thing, but having a broken tape recorder play back was just crying foul play. Was he the only one who saw this? Was he the only one who thought it was as if a rewound tape had just replayed itself? Was he the only one who believed that there was more to this war than just coordinators and naturals and their petty wars?_

_Perhaps he was being paranoid. The doctors warned that his defective genes and the medicine might had some serious side effects. Perhaps his irrational thinking was just as they had warned._

_But then again, the facts were right there. _

_Perhaps that was what scared him the most._

_Sean never said a word; he tired her hardest to force the thoughts out of her mind. He even went as far as to destroy all the documents he had regarding the matter. It was instinct. If he was right, the there had to be someone responsible for making ten billion people act move like actors on some stage play. Sean could not think of anyone in the super-powers that could manage such a feat. The resources required would me monumental._

_So Sean tried his hardest to forget about his duties and focus on the imminent threat that he could see. Finding the Rei-shiki was going to be a real challenge, that was for certain. That theory would be best forgotten for another time._

_After all it was just a stupid theory that came from a stupid thought at the funeral of the most important person he held to his heart, right? Perhaps he was just scared the drugs were playing with his head._

_But, perhaps in truth he was most afraid of actually being right. _

_If he was right, then there had to be someone pulling the strings from the shadows._

_If he was right, the entire world as he knew it would exist based on a lie._

_If he was right, then Sakura would have died for nothing._

* * *

A/N Well, here it is, Chapter 7. It'll be the last you hear from Londo Bell in a while. First Sam gets acquainted with the rest of the_Kurogane's_ crew. Then I've got to bring the Dark History into the Cosmic Era. And do all this while tackling my exams. Fun, Fun, Fun. Good news is I have the next few chapters typed up; bad news is that I've got to edit them first. Thankfully my proofreader did a fine job, so it shouldn't be too long

_+ Well, I can only ever see Shinn piloting with either the Destiny and the Impulse, so I gave him the Destiny. I figure he needed Destiny at 100 if he was to fight the Rei-shiki evenly._

_+ Well, there you have it Sakura is Sean and Rai's Cattleya. I won't go into the details of her death though, but it should be pretty clear that she became a soldier despite an impairment of some sort. Rai hates Sean a lot more than Raidiese hated Elzam, so those two won't be making up in a long while._

_+ Sean's theory is my little play on the last part of Destiny. He's a bit delusional isn't he? But you're only crazy until you prove them wrong. The third beat of revelation is almost upon them now._

* * *

_Preview_

"Um… Samantha? You're supposed to wear that _under _your clothes."


	8. Phantom Girls I

Disclaimer; See previous chapter

* * *

Chapter 08 The Phantom Girls I

* * *

CE76

Samantha wondered if Taylor was crazy when she was handed this weird looking baggy thing he said was a flight suit. He had welcomed her aboard the ship just moments ago and granted her the honorary rank of Corporal, now he was giving her this black rubber-like full-body spandex and was telling her to put it on.

"So Sam, this is the latest advancement in space suits from the Grabella Research Institute. It's really user friendly, so I'm pretty sure you'll have no trouble putting it on."

Samantha scrutinized the baggy "Skin Suit Mk II" as Taylor called it. No way was this thing going to fit her. It was at least eight sizes too big. And the Grabella Research Institute? She's never heard of the place.

And also there was the more important question. "Why do I have to put this on?"

Still leaning against the infirmary wall, Shoko answered. "We want to see how good of a mobile suit pilot you are. So we're going to have you pilot a suit in a mock simulation battle against one of my pilots."

"Um, I'm a prisoner of war. Isn't giving me a mobile suit a bit dangerous for you guys I mean?" Samantha pointed out.

"That's quite unlikely. We're giving you the oldest suit in our hanger. Escape is quite impossible for you." Shoko shrugged nonchantly. "Besides… if you can last even ten minutes against Chris, then you deserve to get away." She added as an afterthought.

"Eh?"

* * *

Shoko had shown Samantha to the hangar changing rooms before departing, leaving Samantha to her own machinations.

It took Samantha little effort to find an empty locker, mainly because all but one of the lockers strangely were empty, and that one locker had a chainsaw in it. It was weird. Didn't anyone need to store their clothes when doing dock duty?

Getting the skin suit on was a relatively easy task. Despite the fact it should have been too big for her and covered her entire body from the neck down, even having spots for toes and fingers, the slippery insides made it incredibly easy to slip on.

"Wow, the Commodore wasn't kidding about this being user friendly." Samantha mused. "But more importantly, this is my chance!"

Indeed a golden opportunity for her escape was at hand. Who cares if they gave her some crap machine? A mobile suit was a mobile suit, and assuming she could somehow slip by whoever they sent at her, she could get away.

Now all she had to do was figure out how to repeat that miracle she did a week ago.

"Alright, now where is that helmet?" Samantha looked around the changing room. Strange, no helmet. A frown graced her features. How was a flight suit supposed to function without a helmet?

"Oh well. Maybe they'll give me one later." Samantha reassured herself. "Okay, now, Shoko said I was to push some button on the right wrist… ah there it is!" Samantha located the slip touchpad on the right wrist of the suit and gave the blinking symbol a little press.

Instantly the baggy flight suit deflated like a balloon until it wrapped around her like a second skin. The once thick rubbery material had shrunk until it was hugging her body like a second skin. Almost too much like a second skin. Samantha paled.

* * *

"You know, we could be drinking martinis at Von Braun right now if we didn't have to sneak around like the kid that stole from the cookie jar." Marty complained.

"Mou, Lark… stop complaining so much. I think I hit my head again." moaned Nono, clearly too disoriented to know who she was talking to. She was lounging on one of the nearby reclining beach chairs the tech crew reserved for visitors.

A mild disaster earlier that day.

Somebody, probably one of the two kids, had dropped a lollipop into "the core". The ensuring panic had her entire section trying to remove the sticky item before something blew up. Nono had the grand honor of being the one to remove it, exposing herself to lethal levels of radiation.

Mission successful, but the radiation had given Nono a massive headache of the "I wish I were dead" variety. Disadvantage of being a cybernetic organism, you can't die from things that you would rather have killed you. The three hour sterilization procedure didn't help things any.

Without receiving treatment from Rumiko, it would be a long time before Nono could even remember who she was.

"Lark? Did you put something in your pillow?"

"I have no idea what the hell you are going on about Takaya."

"Oh Look! Nonoriri!" Nono suddenly declared before promptly passing out.

"Geez, Rumiko better fix up that concoction of hers quick." Marty stated, checking off the last checkbox on the touchpad in his hands. "Okay Shoko! The controls for a standard mobile suit have been rigged. This baby's all ready to go!"

The tech crew and their visitors were huddled around a single machine out of its berth. Sitting in the hanger bay was a blue machine lightly taller than the average mobile suit. It was quite odd since it was incredibly bulky and cumbersome.

Of course it only looked cumbersome. In its prime, the Gespenst Mk II Type S was the stuff of nightmares. Even know, the battle cry of 'Gespenst Kick!' still sent shivers down some pilots' spines.

"Good. Professor Presty, are you ready?" Shoko commanded. The scientist gave a hearty thumbs up to the wing commander. "Good. I guess this just leaves the pil… the hell?"

When Samantha shuffled into the hanger, all activity ground to a halt. A few jaws were dropped. Some people collapsed into fits of laughter.

Standing bashfully in one of the doorways to the hangar bay was the object of their mirth. The black skin suit was advertised to fit over it's user like a second skin. Literally. Samantha's body outline from her curves and her lack of any chest were very apparent to everyone on the deck. In fact if it was any thinner, Samantha guessed it would be see through!

She might as well have walked in there naked.

The blush on her face told them she realized this as well. Her face was definitely brighter than a shooting star.

"…you're doing this on purpose aren't you?" Shoko tried to steady her voice, but her quivering lips showed that either anger or mirth was slowly creeping in.

"But… I did what you said! I pressed the button and everything! How come it's so… so… tight?!" Samantha blurted out. Shoko sighed when she realized the incredibly rookie mistake the young redhead had made. Understandable since Samantha had never encountered such an odd piece of technology before.

The swordswoman could remember the chaos that ensued when the bloody thing became standard issue. Nobody wanted to wear it, especially after the SRX team was publicly humiliated in them. She never wanted to experience that nightmare ever again.

It really pained her to do this. It really did.

"…Sam. You are supposed to wear that UNDER your normal clothes."

Samantha let out a high pitched yelp as the pieces fell into place. The disuse of the changing room, the fact no one on the ship seemed to be suing a space suit of any sort… Samantha did a one eighty and bolted for her clothes as fast as her two legs could carry her.

Shoko sighed as the hangar crew burst out into fits of laughter. Shoko hoped this would not leave any lingering mental scars. "This is partially my fault I suppose. I'd better follow her to make sure she puts it on correctly this time."

Marty, trying to regain his composure, tapped the swordswoman's shoulder. "Hey look on the bright side; at least she doesn't know how to turn the thing invisible yet!"

* * *

Samantha fidgeted in the seat of the modified Gespenst Mk II as it locked its feet onto the launch catapult. Now dressed in her new attire over the transparent, oh how she blushed when she learned it could actually turn invisible, skin suit. It was understandable that Samantha was quite frazzled by the most recent turn of events.

Wondrous piece of technology aside, this 'skin suit' proved one undeniable fact for the poor girl.

She had to get out of this ship. Her modesty depended on it.

And the still haven't given her any form of helmet. This was going to make ditching this big robot as an escape plan a real problem.

"Are you ready for launch, Assault-4?" An Indian girl roughly Samantha's age showed up on large panoramic view screen. Wearing large round spectacles and dressed in modest working attire the communications officer wore an expressionless face.

Samantha unfamiliar with this person simply nodded. "Uh, yeah."

"That's good. Sergeant Maj. Heartily was starting to grate on my nerves with his complaining. Good hunting Corporal Douglas. Starting catapult."

"Wha-Aieeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Before she could brace herself, Samantha experienced the biggest catapult launch she had experienced in her short life. Either the lack of her usual space suit was making the catapult launch more extreme than it normally was, or like everything else on this crazy ship the launch catapult was over the top.

The Gespenst Mk II rocketed out of the launch bay at impossible speeds. It crashed headfirst into a large outcropping of rock nearly ten kilometers away which ground her to a stop. Damage was relatively light though, thanks to the zero gravity alloy that Marty had seen fit to equip onto the machine almost eight months prior.

... But that didn't stop Samantha from being jostled around in the cockpit like a rag doll.

"That was the most pathetic excuse of a launch I have ever seen in my entire career as a mobile suit jockey." Samantha could hear someone grumble over the communications channel. "Pull yourself together rookie. In a real battle, I have killed you six times over right now."

Fumbling with the controls to make the machine stand, Samantha took in her surroundings. She was pretty sure this was the moon. The ground was the right color, and the earth sphere was hanging like a blue orb over their heads. She was tempted to turn her robot around to see what the ship she had been held on looked like, but something caught her attention.

Standing before her Gespenst Mk II was another blue machine, what she presumed was her opponent. It looked absolutely vicious. Surprisingly, a technical readout of her adversary popped up in the corner of Samantha's view screen for her to see.

Despite the ceramic armor that it was coated with, the machine's bulky form was lightly armored by conventional standards. However it was armed with two high ordinance hyper bazookas stored on its back, a massive beam gatling-cannon secured in its left forearm and a huge shotgun slung over its shoulder in its right. As if its main armament wasn't enough, its 'utility belt' stored grenades and explosives of all kinds on various hard points along with missile racks 'hidden' in its legs. Except he had opened up all his weapon ports.

Numerous thrusters were placed strategically thought the machine's frame giving unparalleled speed and agility. A red Cyclops eye stared at her from under the horned helmet.

The name of this fearsome mobile suit was the Kampfer. Years after its conception, this mobile suit was still a force to be reckoned with.

Then she recognized the pilot's voice. "Hey, you're that kid aren't you? Chris Heartily?"

"That's Sergeant Major Chris Heartily. I outrank you… kid." Chris retorted, his voice sounding quite annoyed over the communications channel. "Look, here is the raw deal. This is a live fire exercise. Your job is to throw everything you can at me and my job is to give you hell. Ka-peesh?"

Samantha blinked. Live fire? Her eyes wandered to the large amount of weaponry the Kampfer was armed with.

Against THAT!?!?!?

Samantha quickly checked her own weapons. Her primary weapon was a pitiful machine gun and a backup split missile launcher. Samantha let out a soundless scream.

Forget trying to escape. She'd have a ghastly enough time just trying to survive!

"Hey kid, I have a ton of aggression to work off, so brace yourself!"

Samantha didn't have another warning. The Kampfer casually opened up with the shotgun, and immediately switched over to his gatling cannon. The automatic reloading mechanism for the shotgun ejected the depleted casing the shell while a new one entered the chamber.

Reacting quickly, Samantha slammed on the accelerator, as the right thrusters on the Gespenst flared to life. A massive fireball erupted at the point she had been moments before as the explosive shell detonated and one of the beams came so close to her suit that the heat caused the a slight darkening of the armor.

"He is serious!" Samantha gaped in horror. Live ammunitions? The hard reality of the situation was really sinking in. It was one thing to think about being in a live fire exercise, but it was another to actually live in it! The ground behind her fleeing Gespenst bloomed with explosions where she ran.

In desperation she executed some of the evasive maneuvers she had been taught, pulling the hovering Gespenst into a zigzagging motion while trying to reorient her suit to face the Kampfer. Then a shotgun blast in the trajectory of her evasion path threw her Gespenst off balance and sending it on it's behind.

"That is the most basic textbook maneuver in the book. Try harder." She could hear Chris grumble. The Kampfer had barely moved from its spot and was playfully twirling the shotgun by its trigger guard in the right hand like a cowboy from an old western.

Samantha's mouth gaped at the causal motion. How had he programmed his mech to DO that?

The shotgun finished one more revolution before it suddenly snapped back into firing position and a shot was fired directly at her.

Once again Samantha was barely able to evade. The chest thrusters moved her Gespenst, skidding across the ground backwards as a 12 foot crater was formed in front of her. The sixteen year old girl gaped at the view screen. Now Samantha was torn between all out panic and trying to predict his next move.

One hit from an explosive of that level would finish her for sure! These people were going to kill her! Life fire? She was a bleeding rookie! This was only her second time in a real robot and they wanted to test her using live fire? She was dead for su…

_Now this won't do will it?_

Suddenly a something clamped down on her rising panic. Hard.

_Calm down Samantha._

"Calm down." Sam gripped her controls tighter as an odd calming sensation poured into her. How odd, suddenly she didn't feel so afraid anymore. "It's no use panicking. If I panic now, I lose and it'll be all over."

_Think it though. You have nothing to fear._

"He's taking his time. If he wanted to, he would have finished me already. He even said so himself." Her clear mind logically deduced the truth, and suddenly Sam felt a lot better. Just calm down and analyze his moves.

_Don't think, feel. Stop trying to pilot and just do it. It'll come to you naturally._

"Don't think, just feel." Sam said to herself, forcing the Gespenst back onto its feet. Confidence she didn't know she had suddenly washed over her. This was just a training program, but she might as well put on a good show.

Chris cocked an eyebrow as he watched the machine stagger to its feet once again. "What happened? She was completely wigging out on the comm. channel just a moment ago." Suddenly, it all clicked in Chris"s head.

"Artesia. She's helping the rookie out." Chris would cry foul play, but he was pretty sure the Presty's were dancing with joy at the kinds of data that were flying through their computer screens. That and he was pretty sure he could still defeat her easily.

_Let him make the first move. He's overconfident, he'll make a mistake. That will be your chance_

"Let him make the first move." Sam continued. "Find an opening, strike back."

_You can do this._

"Let's do this." Sam forced the machine into action, the Gespenst surged backwards firing its machine gun all the way. Samantha's horrible aim wouldn't win her any Olympic medals, but it caused the Kampfer to finally move.

_I knew you could do it._

"Wow! Maybe this girl got some stuff after all." Chris grinned with anticipation. "Okay, let's see what you got." The Kampfer alternated firing its shot gun and its gatling-cannon as it sped along the dusty lunar surface. Sam ceased firing as she focused all her efforts in dodging the incoming weapons fire.

Despite the explosions ripping her surroundings to pieces, Sam couldn't help but smile as well.

It took some getting used to, but Sam eventually got used to his pattern of attack. Shotgun whenever he had the chance, gatling-cannon whenever he could. If her guess was right, he would stay away from the Hyper Bazooka and the missiles out of caution for actually hurting her.

He was just conducting a test after all. Now that she had it all figured out she could almost even see where he was going to shoot next!

As Sam swerved the Gespenst Mk II in and out of the massive amounts of incoming fire, one thought entered her head. "That's odd, is just it me or is he slowing down?"

Somewhere in the distance, a little blonde girl, barely older than a toddler, with golden eyes in a pink long sleeved shirt smiled.

* * *

"Wow. Chris isn't pulling any punches." Marty mused as he watched the battle from the view screen the techs had set up in the now quiet hangar bay. Popcorn was broken out, some chairs were drawn and the lights were dimmed. Aside from the constant clicking sound of the Presty's collecting their data from another corner of the hanger, all attention was focused on the large thirty inch television set.

The Gespenst Mk II Type S swerved in and out of beams and rocket propelled grenades like a daredevil was at the wheel.

Shoko rolled her eyes. "Of course he is. He's missing her on purpose. Chris is a dead shot at that range, so there's no way she could dodge all that weapons fire of he were serious."

The view of the battle on the screen circled around the two battling machines like the camera was circling overhead. In fact, it was.

"Are you sure this is such a good idea. Major? All those explosions might draw some attention." Ariel's voice sounded over the television speaker as her Zeta Plus continued to beam the recording of the battle from above.

Shoko responded through the headset she was wearing. "Can't be helped. The Professor and I want to put pressure on the girl. We think she's one of those 'latent potential' types. So she needs and an adequate threat to get her going. This is also in one of A.E.'s testing zones of experimental suits, and they've covered all the paperwork for us."

"I see. As long as they don't see your Rei-Shiki, we should be okay then." Ariel confirmed.

"Ohy! Ariel, focus! The Gespy just dropped off the bottom of the screen there!" one of the Techs complained. "How can we see the action if we can see the participants?"

"This is not some kind of wrestling match you fool."

As Shoko observed the progress of the battle, a slight smile graced her features. As the battle progressed, Chris's shots were missing by a wider and wider margin, so much so he was beginning to recalibrate his aim more often.

Even though she was using a Gespenst Mk II Type S and Chris was still going easy on her, the mere fact that she was holding up so well against a pilot of Chris's caliber despite her level of experience was saying a lot.

Shoko stole a quick glance at Takeshi Presty, who looked back at her with an affirmative look. "Negative point one six seconds." He said, reading off his computer screen.

"I knew it." Shoko murmured to herself. A negative reaction time, Samantha was predicting Chris's moves before he had even made them. That could only mean one thing…

A short cry from the techs drew her attention back to the monitor.

"Holy Shit! She hit Beowulf!" The impossible happened.

Chris had made a slight mistake, a slight overcompensation on his port thrusters from a fancy slide maneuver making his mobile suit stall for just four milliseconds. Samantha pounced like a coiled tiger. The Gespenst returned fire.

It was so unexpected, that Chris taken completely flat footed, only had milliseconds to dodge the short, three round burst. Sliding out of the way using a boost from his starboard thrusters, Chris was unable to dodge it completely as seared off the paint on his right shoulder.

A stunned silence settled over the techs when that happened.

Shoko suppressed a grin as she spoke into her microphone. "Chris, Ariel, enough. I think that the Presty's have collected enough data. Conclude the exercise and return the base, I think the girl's demonstrated what we needed to see."

"Understood. Assault three returning to base."

"Rodger that. Assault two, concluding the exercise." Chris said with amusement and a slight malicious edge.

Apparently he took offense to having his paintjob scratched by a greenhorn.

In a spectacular flourish, the Kampfer fired three blasts with its shotgun that hit the Gespenst's knee joints. The first two rocket propelled grenades blew the legs clean off, promptly disabling the blue machine and sending it tumbling onto the moon's surface. The third found itself imbedded in the Gespenst's head.

A prolonged silence followed as the camera circled overhead.

"Chris…" Shoko growled.

"Hey I finished it!"

"Never mind, just bring her home. Assault-One out." Shoko sighed as she watched the legless Gespenst flop around the ground like a dying fish. "…this is almost embarrassing."

"You said it." Marty agreed.

Shoko lifted her glasses and rubbed her fatigued eyes with her left hand. "Anyway, I want her mech detained and the Corporal in my ready room by twelve hundred hours…"

There was a wet sensation in her hands. She could hear several people in the hangar gasp in surprise. A clattering sound in the background indicated that Nono had sprung to her feet in alarm.

She pulled her hand away from her eyes.

Her palm was covered in blood.

"Interesting… This confirms my hunch. Postpone the briefing until tomorrow."

* * *

"So? What do you think?" Takeshi Presty spoke as he reviewed the data streaming from the video recording.

A mechanical feminine response replied. "The data clearly shows she is a Newtype, however her performance compared to previous pilots is abysmal. Were it not for the fact she is the only candidate, I would heavily recommend she not be the test pilot. In short, she sucks."

You giggled at the voice's words. "I wonder who thought you that phrase, Alice."

* * *

Samantha stumbled out of the wrecked Gespenst onto the gray steel floor of the Kurogane'_s _portside hangar. She had spent the last ten minutes staring at the main view screen which showed nothing but static while the Kampfer dragged her sorry behind back to the _Kurogane_. She hadn't even been able to see the ship's exterior!

"I thought he was holding back, now I know he was holding back." Samantha grumbled as she nursed her sore back. Not watching where she was going, she collided with a small girl in an orange jumpsuit who was knocked onto her behind. Samantha quickly held a hand out to the small techie. "Oops, hey are you okay?"

"Peachy!" The mousy mechanistic hopped to her feet. "See no broken bones. Wait, you must be Sam Douglas. Very nice to meet you!"

Samantha was taken aback by the young girl's energy. Diminutive in stature this girl was around Samantha's age, and wore to large round coke bottle sized spectacles over her wide cobalt eyes. Her busy hair was put into twin pigtails. He had a laptop securely tucked under her right arm.

"Oh yeah, I need to introduce myself. My name is Rebecca Robinson, but everybody calls me Becky so you can too. I'm the lead-technician in charge of your machine Ms. Douglas! Very pleased to meet you."

Becky was shaking Samantha's hand vigorously while the pilot was looking baffled at the jumpsuit clad girl. "A personal technician? But…"

"It's standard operating procedure around here, so you don't have to worry about getting special treatment." Marty interrupted. "Becky, the Major and the Presty's have OK'ed the decision to let this girl have a crack at the La Platina. Stop wasting your time on this Gespenst and prep that instead."

Becky snapped off a quick salute. "Aye Master Chief sir!" She took off towards a different part of the hangar.

"…she forgot to collect her team." Marty sighed. "What am I ever going to do with that girl?"

"Err… Master Chief?" Samantha hesitantly asked.

Marty wiped his hands on his jumpsuit to clean the grease off them before replying. "My name is Martin McFly, Marty to my friends. Don't let my age fool you, but I'm the chief mechanic on this flying bucket. By the way, nice flying Corporal, Not many people have been able to catch Beowulf off guard like that."

Samantha blinked. "Beowulf?"

Marty pulled her down to his height before he draped an arm over her shoulder. "That be Chris Heartily, an old friend of mine. You know somebody is going to have to teach you the lingo around here and it might as well be me. You up for lunch tomorrow?"

An expert in martial arts and sword fighting as well as being prey to various assignation attempts, Shoko was like a drawn sword, even in her sleep. The slightest change in her surroundings would not go unnoticed. It was impossible to catch this woman off guard.

Many fallen foes would attest to that.

However even as she rested in the reclining hair in her quarters she did not notice the girl sitting just an arms length from her.

Gazing at the scarred woman with her two golden eyes, the young invisible girl sat herself on the bed next to this hardened warrior, just content to watch as the older woman took a moment in her long turbulent life to try and find the one thing that continued to elude her.

Perhaps, thought the little girl, that is why this scene is so beautiful.

* * *

_A/N Quick update! It's back to the Kurogane and company. I put most of my comments in the previous chapter, So It's just a quick note here._

_+ Skin suits are a play on the skin tight pilot suits some super robot pilots have to wear. Plus they allow the heroes to look good while flying in their robots. No clumsy, bulky space suit for the ATX team! Oh, and yes, it a waste disposal system, although the thought of using let the crew a little green for a long time. It took a very controversial and perverted logistics General to make them standard issue._

_+I don't know whether Nono would be affected by the radiation. The science behind Buster Machines has always been somewhat a mystery to me. _

_+ I chose the Kampfer as Chris's mobile suit because it has so much weaponry that it can 'pierce through any defense'. That and the fact both machines have "horns" on their heads. It's meant to be a long range take on the Alteisen's design concept; 'break through any defense with overwhelming firepower'._

_+ Kurogane has a different mechanic policy from other vessels in their fleet because of the nature of the operations assigned to them. They operate behind enemy lines quite a bit, so parts are in short in supply. This often forces them to cannibalize fallen enemies for parts and integrate normally incompatible components into their machines to keep them operational. _

_Therefore the mechanic crew must know the machines intimately to so they can modify any salvaged parts to their liking. Hence the higher Mechanic to Pilot ratio than usual. Not that Shoko actually lets Marty carry out his duties on her machine._

* * *

_Omake!_

"General, how can you remain so calm? Rescind your order already! I have the documents right here. Sign and stamp and then the ordeal will be over."

"It's just a mutiny."

"Just a mutiny? What's wrong with you! One mutiny is bad enough, but the entire armada is reporting cases of uprisings! Heck, some of the commanders have joined in the uprisings as well! The other members of the bass are breathing down your neck and there have been numerous attempts on the lives of members of our division!"

"Ah, yes. Well, I'm just in charge of logistics, the Admiral Noah is the one who has to deal with this…"

"They are crying out for YOUR blood! Noah had to move the _Excellion_ in system to deter the _Hagane_ from firing on this station!"

"I'm well aware of that. Noah did a good job didn't he? They're just overreacting. The troops do that every time we issue new equipment."

"General. The entire SRX team found themselves naked when the graduation ceremony in Axis. It was a PR disaster for them. I think trying to find and gut you is a very expected response from them."

"Well, I always thought their females were hot…"

"Wow, yeah that was a great show wasn't it… ahh, the Kobayashi sisters… wait… No, No, What am I saying!? "

"After that calamity, the entire fleet got wind of the incident and since then everybody wants to get rid of the skin-suits? I believe that's where you left off."

"Yes! Thank You!"

"You know, if they honestly wanted to, they could have just dumped the skin suits into space and be done with it."

"Not after you ordered the entire stock of regular space suits to be incinerated. Now they don't have spares. General, I promised to follow you hell and back if you made the military more 'acceptable', but I'm not sure I can survive this! Farman and Fury are already in the hospital and Major Elric is a hostage on the _Soyukaze_! Heck, Hawkeye was almost killed when Captain Werec herself carpet bombed the research facility!"

"Their sacrifice will not be in vain."

"General, I'm serious! Mini-skirts are one thing, but stripping them naked?"

"Well… they aren't exactly naked, just wearing invisible clothes…"

"General Mustang!"

"Ah, Hawkeye. Jean and I were just having a chat about the new space suits. Care to join us?"

"The_Kurogane_ and _Gloria _just arrived in the sector! Skull Squadron and the ATX Team have joined up with the SRX and they're mounting an assault! The _Excellion_ can't hold them off for long! We've to get you out of here!"

"…maybe I should have stopped with the mini-skirts." General Mustang mused.

* * *

Preview - _I'm no Hallucination._ The girl curtsied. _You may call me Artesia. I'm the Kurogane's resident ghost._


	9. Phantom Girls II

Disclaimer: As in first chapter

* * *

**Chapter 09 The Phantom Girls II **

* * *

"Is this your full report?" Taylor mused as he leafed through the report that Takeshi Presty had given him. "I don't think we've ever had this kind of person on the crew before… at least one that we can actually see and touch."

"It's a pity Katsura couldn't give you this report in person." Takeshi responded.

"You're dead set on having her as your pilot then?"

"I was dead set before. This just makes it official." Takeshi grinned. "So, how much are we going to tell Sam about, well, everything?"

"I have no idea." The Commodore admitted. "To be honest, I was hoping to let her find out in her own time. The whole dark history, it's a lot to take in. You've got to tell her about it if you want to tell her about Project True Odyssey."

Takeshi nodded with understanding. "I suppose so. It would be better if we had some hard proof of it though."

Taylor grinned evilly as he produced a bunch of documents from under his tuxedo. "That won't be a problem. Word has it some poor sap from our Union branch made an emergency landing in Von Braun. I talked with her superior and she was all too happy to let us have her."

"A Union pilot?" Takeshi asked surprised. "Wow, their machines are about as advanced as they come."

"Well, we'll be in the city before the day is out, so you can meet her then." The Commodore said. He pulled a photograph from the pile and whistled. "Pretty. I wonder, if she's still available?"

"... So, back on topic." Takeshi quickly reminded the officer when he noticed the lewd expression that had overcome the other man's face. "Shoko wants to introduce Sam to me today. What CAN I tell her?"

The Commodore shrugged. "I don't know. Whatever you like I guess, just as long as you don't overload her with information and cause her to go bonkers."

"Well then, I'd better go prepare the La Platina. Got to make a good impression on the test pilot." Takeshi announced as she stepped away from the railing in the observation deck. "By the way, what are you doing out of sickbay so early Commodore? I thought your injuries would have at least kept you in a med bay for the next two weeks or so. You're not even wearing a sling."

The Commodore's mouth visibly twitched.

* * *

"_Someone KILL me!" Taylor howled as his entire body felt like it was roasted in a blast furnace._

_Hassaway stumbled back in shock as he watched his brother and his captain buckle like a bull in pain. "CMO Luckfield! You've been using your health drink as an IV?! Stop before you kill the commodore!"_

"_But it works; I've done it dozens of times before. He wanted to leave the sickbay early, so I recommended him this treatment. And it's not my health drink, it's a medicinal concoction my of my family that has been passed down from generation to generation." Rumiko indignantly maintained. _

_The loud thumping from behind her was caused from her patient slamming his head into the bead rest repeatedly. _

"_I did tell him it might cause him some discomfort and he agreed."_

"_I'm MELTING! Mercy! MERCYYYEEE!!!"_

* * *

The Commodore's face visibly colored at the memory.

Takeshi would only watch in wonder as the Commodore took of in the direction of the toilet to eject his breakfast in a disgusting fashion. Apparently, the cure was far worse than the illness could ever be

* * *

"So Shoko is a Major, and she hold some kind of title that has peen passed down through generations, "The Sword that Cleaves Evil"… how am I going so far?"

Seated in the cafeteria, Samantha was getting briefed on the need to know stuff of the Kurogane. While the "gag order" by the XO was still in effect, Marty had decided to teach her what he could on a topic he could talk to her about, namely her wing mates.

Wing mates.

They really were dead set on turning her into one of them. What on Earth were they thinking?

Marty swallowed the last morsel of the burger he was eating. "Yup. Shoko is this generation's 'Sword that Cleaves Evil'. Word on the street is that she is the most impressive one since the founder himself. Might seem that way cause the previous one was a real dumb-ass though.."

"Sergeant Major Heartily is called the Beowulf because he… fights like a berserker…?" Samantha tried to remember how exactly Chris Heartily had earned his nickname.

"Nope. Chris always keeps his cool in a fight no matter how bad it gets. He is called Beowulf because everybody is scared shitless from being on the receiving end of his guns. "Bust through the opponents defense with overwhelming firepower." With that kind of weaponry, it's entirely possible that there is no conventional defense that can survive all that."

Well no arguments there. Samantha had seen it first hand. She had a half mind that Chris could shatter even Phase Shift with all that firepower, kinetic weaponry or not. "… And Sergeant Ariel Loveless is some amnesiac you picked up along the way?"

"Yep. She's a complete enigma. When she joined about... roughly fifteen months ago, I think..., she didn't have any idea who she was. We tried finding out for her, but every databank we tried turned up a blank." Marty elaborated. "Since then she's been on the ship. She's even taken to taking care of those two brats."

Samantha clearly remembered Ariel. She was the girl who was the tool that the_Kurogane_ executed their very awful practical joke.

Samantha never imagined someone so young would be caring for two other children. "Is that why she is always carrying those books?"

"Those do it yourself parenting help books? Yep." Marty sighed. "I wish someone would get her to stop. She takes those books too seriously sometimes. Did you know she gave up swearing because of them?"

"Is that why she says fool all the time?" Samantha noted with interest. The way the girl talked, she couldn't imagine her saying a cuss word given the overly formal speech.

"Apparently, 'fool' is an acceptable word." Marty rolled his eyes. "She used to swear a lot, then one day she fond out that swearing can be detrimental to the children, so she just replaces each word in her speech with the 'more acceptable word'. When she gets riled up, she can say it as many as twelve times in one minute. I don't think she even realizes he does it."

Unable to help herself Samantha giggled. "You have the oddest crew."

"I haven't even begun to tell you about the bridge crew yet. Did you know our helmsman used to deliver tofu? Or that our Comm. officer is the ship gossip monger? And don't let me get started on the Commodore…"

"Why are you telling me all this?" Samantha cut in.

The question was so out of the blue, Marty was caught completely off guard. "... Excuse me?"

"How come all of you are so nice to me?" She had made up her mind last night to finally put an end to all her lingering questions about her captives "hospitality". "Not to long ago I was cooling my heels in your brig. Now every member of the crew is treating me…"

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." Marty interrupted. "Look, the gag order is still in effect…"

"I don't give a damn about your stupid gag order!" Samantha shouted and slammed her hands on the table. Every head in the room turned to watch her outburst.

"I've been kept in the dark ever since I got here! This is maddening, everyone I've talked to either dodges my questions or give me your silly excuse! Who are you? Where are you going? Why are you treating me like this?"

Marty tried to casually wave off her question. "Well, it's complicated, and I'm not really sure your brain could comprehend…"

Samantha slapped him hard. "Jerk." She stalked out of the cafeteria in a huff, caned heads and curious eyes following the redhead's exit.

Marty rubbed his reddening cheek in astonishment. Well, he should have expected that she would start to get cranky after all that time of being brushed off.

"Smooth man, smooth." Chris muttered as he set himself down beside the mechanic.

"We all knew she was going to snap sometime." Marty responded. "That wasn't it though. I expect it will be sometime soon when she really does something stupid."

"To be honest, this isn't fair on her either." Chris noted.

"True."

Chris sighed emphatically. "Well, whether she realizes it yet, the moment she latched onto Shoko's suit, she's one of us now... whether she likes it or not."

* * *

In the corridor Samantha was admonishing herself for her outburst. She overreacted and made herself look like a complete fool in front of half the crew! She was frustrated with being kept in the dark for so long, but she had no right to slap Martin.

The mechanic was one of the nicest people she had encountered since coming aboard this ship, and now she had slapped him in an impulse. A slight fear started festering in her stomach. What if her outburst changed their attitude towards her?

_You won't have to worry about that._

Samantha physically jumped in the air when the voice suddenly echoed though her consciousness.

_You enjoy jumping into the air quite a bit don't you?_

A small blonde girl that was faintly glowing and slightly transparent stood in the center of the hallway with her hands behind her back. She smiled playfully at Samantha who was by now gaping at the presence of the apparition. It was the girl who was in her hallucination!

_I'm no Hallucination._ The girl curtsied. _You may call me Artesia. I'm the Kurogane's resident ghost. I'm very pleased to meet you._ The girl's lips never moved. It almost seemed as if the voice was being projected into Samantha's mind.

"What?" Samantha would only blurt out.

_Come now. In a ship as old as the Kurogane, getting a few ghosts over the millennia are quite inevitable. I must admit though, I've only taken to haunting this ship quite recently._

Samantha pinched herself. "Okay I'm hallucinating again. I've got some insane wacko glowing toddler claiming to be a ghost." Artesia mock pouted.

_How rude. I was hoping a little 'thank you' for the favor I did yesterday was in order._

Naturally, Samantha was confused. "What?"

_I'm psychic. I calmed you down when you were panicking. Did you not find it odd that you went front completely unable to perform the most basic function to be able to fend of Beowulf?_

Samantha went thoughtful for a moment. "Well now that you mention it… wait a sec, how do I know you're not some figment of the imagination my mind's cooked up?"

Artesia's giggle sounded through her mind before the girl faded out of view._Ask the crew._

* * *

Not wanting to see Marty after her outburst and not knowing where Chris and Ariel were, Samantha went to see the only other person she knew she could go to.

So here she was in the Hangar again, sitting on a crate of ammunition as Becky worked on some weird looking Marusame type thing that she was also assigned to. And she was doing it alone, the rest of her crew apparently tasked with preparing something called the "La Platina" for flight while she took care of some basic maintenance.

"Artesia? That Newtype ghost that keeps annoying every telepath that come aboard?" Becky tilted her head off to one side to avoid grease from spurting onto her face. "Yeah, everyone knows about her. She's the ship mascot, although nobody knows exactly what she looks like other than she's a kid."

Newtype ghost? Telepaths? Just another thing Samantha had to add to her unanswered questions list. She was quite tempted to write Becky off and get a second opinion, but Becky and Marty seemed like the two people most honest with her, and Becky had not once spewed the whole "gag order" excuse.

Admittedly, she had only known the girl for a day, but to Samantha that was a moot point given how honest the mechanic was.

"Oh. Thank you." Samantha managed out.

"Did she do something to the XO again?" Becky's eyes lit up in excitement. "Her pranks one are absolutely ingenious! The crew can talk about one for weeks!"

"Actually she introduced herself to me…"

"Are you serious?!"

Becky's lapse of concentration awarded her with a face full of spurting oil. She took absolutely no notice of it though, having had that occur so many times she had become immune to it. "Then the rumors are true! You ARE a Newtype! This is great, now we have someone who can communicate with her on a regular basis!" The sparkle of excitement in Becky's eyes was apparent.

Samantha naturally had no idea what Becky was talking about. She was a coordinator for sure, and some of the more fanatical members of ZAFT had often referred to coordinators as the new race of man, but Newtype?

"What's a Newtype?"

Becky opened her mouth to explain... then after a brief silence, closed it. "Actually…I'm not sure how to explain that." The mousy girl sincerely admitted. "It's kind of a 'you're on or you aren't' thing, but in all cases Newtypes are spacenoids who can do some wicked stuff."

Samantha mentally made a note of that. "What kind of wicked stuff?"

"Major Katsura one knew someone who could tell the future. There are others that can pilot robots really well while there are some who can communicate inside other people's heads. And there are come who can linger around after death." Becky clarified.

"Seeing the future, that's quite far fetched." Samantha noted.

_Ah, but I am here, am I not?_

Samantha jerked about to see the glowing form mischievously balancing herself on the machine's portside wing. _As best as I can explain it, Newtypes are a naturally occurring space phenomenon where that an exceptionally fortunate individual is grated incredible telepathic abilities and spatial awareness from being born in space._

"Sam? Did something happen?" Becky asked curiously. Samantha tried motioning to the balancing girl who was teetering closer to the edge of the wing.

_She can't see me. Only another Newtype or telepath can see a Newtype ghost of my level._

"She can't see you?" Samantha echoed.

"I can't see who?" Becky thought for a moment then snapped her fingers in understanding. "So she's here right now right? Oh cool! Are you talking to her right now?"

_I want to talk to you._

"You want to talk to me? Is this something to do with what happened yesterday?"

"She wants to talk with you? How exciting!" Becky squealed. "Tell you what, I'll be outside to give you two some privacy! Fill me in with all the juicy details once you are done!"

_She doesn't have to leave on my account._

"Um, Artesia says you can stay." Samantha quickly blurted out at the young mechanic, who was packing her toolbox away.

"Oh really? Sweet!" Becky plopped herself down cross-legged on the floor. "Don't mind me then. I'll be right here."

Samantha had no idea how Becky's mind worked anymore.

Samantha flinched when the child suddenly materialized next to her. Artesia giggled at Samantha's startled expression. _You're going to have to get used to that if you're going to be my friend. We ghosts move around differently from living people._

"What do you want to talk about?" The redhead asked cautiously.

As much as Becky seemed to think Artesia was some kind of benevolent supernatural spirit, Samantha couldn't help but feel some caution. Nobody she knew of ever had an encounter with the undead. This was supposed to be the stuff of fantasy novels and superstition. Such an idea of a real ghost on the PLANTS would unanimously lauded as completely ludicrous.

_Friendship! Friendship!_ Artesia gave a few ballerina spins on her toes. _I'm lonely and you're the first Newtype who has decided to be a permanent member of the crew. Naturally this means I try and befriend you._

"I was abducted by them." Samantha pointed out. "As much as how nicely they are treating me, I can't forget that. And I never decided to become a member of this crew…"

_Well it's not as if you have a choice_.

"What do you mean I don't have a choice?" Samantha half snapped, the slight irritation that hand been hounding her seeping into her voice.

_You'll see in time. Try making an escape attempt on Von Braun._ Artesia winked playfully at her. _Don't worry, Shoko won't let anything happen to you. Things will fall into perspective soon enough._

Oh great. Even the ghost was being cryptic with her. Samantha was beginning to get a little sick of things. Make an escape attempt at Von Braun? Well this ghost was about as bonkers as the rest of the crew. Wait a moment.

"Does this mean we are going to Von Braun city on the moon?" Samantha asked curiously.

_Yep! If I'm not mistaken the XO of the ship, Hassaway, is looking for you right now to tell you about their plans. Unfortunately he seems to have become stuck between deck three and six after his turbo lift stalled._ A rather smug Artesia looked thoughtful for a moment before grinning again. _It's working now though. He should be here any minute now._

Plans? They made PLANS for her without telling her? Disregarding the fact that a specter was telling this to her, Samantha was feeling fairly agitated at this point. "Plans? What plans? Will someone tell me what is going on!?"

_Hey, don't be so angry. I'm sure you'll be dancing through the corridors once you learn what they have in store for you._

Becky had tried following the conversation, but since she could only imagine what their resident ghost was saying it was hard to do. And she was slightly worried about one other thing; the Ensign was becomingly increasingly angry as the conversation wore on.

A slightly disgruntled Hassaway chose this moment to walk into the hanger. "Ah, just the two people I needed to see. Petty Officer Robison, please run a check on the turbo lift four. I was trapped inside for about ten minutes."

Samantha was slightly stunned by Hassaway's entry. Unless this was a very elaborate prank on the part of the crew, Hassaway had unknowingly confirmed Artesia's existence without a shred of doubt to her. It was one thing for a bubbly technician like Becky to tell her about a ghost, but the straight-as-an-arrow executive officer was another matter completely.

"Yes sir! I'll be on it in a jiffy." Becky announced, dashing off in the direction of the turbo lifts while completely forgetting about her toolbox.

"Now Ensign Douglas, you have been summoned onto the briefing chamber for a matter of utmost importance... Ensign Douglas?"

Samantha was attempting to keep a straight face. Artesia had materialized behind the executive officer and had pulled one of the most stereotypical pranks on the man; she was giving him bunny ears. Samantha didn't know whether to laugh or gape at the immaturity at it all.

_One of the perks about being a ghost, you can never be caught._

* * *

There was a reason they called it the briefing chamber as opposed to the briefing room.

When Samantha stepped into the briefing chamber, she noticed that it resembled a large circular lecture hall found in universities complete with a cinema sized LCD screen television at the front. Since it was mostly devoid of any personnel at present, Samantha could marveled at the size of it; such a room could never be found on any ship she knew of. It was normally considered to be waste of space.

Of course, the Kurogane's size and it's proportionally larger crew made such a room necessary for their operations. Or she would have thought had she not stepped on a discarded half depleted bag of popcorn on the way in.

At the moment, the only people besides herself and Hassaway in the room were the Commodore, her roommate and now superior Shoko, the crazy professor she met earlier called You and one other person she did not recognize. They were standing in the circular area at the bottom of the briefing chamber.

"… And so I believe we should use the La Platina as her training machine as well as using it for the tests." The man concluded the conversation they were having before she arrived. "It's not as if I mind too much."

"I can't disagree." Taylor affirmed. "The La Platina is far superior to the Gespenst and Jegan. The ATX team has always had a certain bond with their machines. Why handle her with kid gloves… it seems like the subject of our discussion is here."

Samantha shifted uncomfortably as the focus of everyone in the room shifted to her.

"I brought her as ordered sir." Hassaway began.

"Good I guess we can get this thing really started then." Taylor stated. He jabbed is finger at Samantha in an overly dramatic fashion that startled her. "Sam Douglas! How would you like to become a test pilot for a revolutionary new mobile suit that could change the face of interstellar space travel for the next twelve thousand years!"

Samantha couldn't process his ridiculous declaration. Test pilot? Interstellar? Twelve thousand years?

Shoko palmed her face. "Commodore, perhaps it would be best of the scientist in charge of the project, and who made the offer, to introduce himself first."

It was then Takeshi Presty bowed to Samantha. "Hello Miss. Douglas, I'm Takeshi Presty the head of Project True Odyssey and this is my assistant and wife, You. We head a civilian project that seeks to improve space travel to the point where mankind can quickly travel to distant planets…"

Despite herself, Samantha's heart jumped with excitement. Space travel? Her dream of being an explorer…

"…and we would like you ask you to be our test pilot."

Samantha's logical mind had to actively restrain herself from saying yes when he finished. From the things she had seen this far, with space ghosts and their huge ship, these people might just be able to do what she had always aimed for; space travel. She had to constantly remind herself she was a prisoner aboard this vessel. For all she knew, they could be bluffing.

"You say you are part of a civilian project, yet this is a terrorist vessel. How can I be sure your offer is genuine?" Samantha pointed out.

"We never said we were terrorists." Shoko cut in. Noticing the disbelieving look on Samantha"s face, Shoko decided to continue. "I suppose you could say we are mercenaries and you just so happened to be caught up in a job."

"I find that hard to believe." Samantha noted.

It was Takeshi who leaped to the rescue. "Have you heard of industrial espionage? These people are guns for hire for multinational companies such as mine."

"Industrial… spies?" Samantha echoed incredulously.

Takeshi nodded and presented his company identification card. "I'm from Anaheim Electronics…"

"The appliance company that manufactures refrigerators and toasters?" Samantha had a difficult time believing Anaheim could manufacture anything larger then the most basic laptop computer, let alone a state of the art mobile suit.

It was well publicized that the last time they tried, they almost went bankrupt.

"That's the cover." Takeshi coughed into his closed fist. "What we really do is arms manufacturing among other things." Samantha actually looked at him, horrified, that he could so casually announce that the premier appliance company was really arms manufactures. "Where do you think the Eurasian Federation got all their new Nemos from?"

Samantha could barely manage out a word. "You're arms dealers! Merchants of death!"

"No, we're just good business." Takeshi said disdainfully, as if quoting from someone else. "But that would be a different division from where I work. You and I work of the upcoming civilian purposes division. We strive to be as different from the arms division as much as we can."

"How can I be so sure you're telling the truth?"

"My word is all I can give." Takeshi said sincerely. "Look I'm actually quite desperate. This is the first project my civilian purposes division has undertaken. I want technology to be used for purposes for the good of the people, not for mindless destruction."

"The technology we are using already exists in Anaheim, so you don't have to worry about the technology you developed being used for harmful purposes." You helpfully supplied. "We're finding a new application for it."

She was obviously trying to rule out the possibility of developing another atom bomb. Samantha looked thoughtful for a moment and considered her options.

On one hand, it seemed really appealing to her. Space travel. It was her dream. This was as good as joining the Stargazer project. And Takeshi did have a point that technology should be used for the good of the people. He seemed an earnest enough person.

On the other hand, in her mind she was still their captive. As nice as they treated her, that was the undeniable fact. She also couldn't help but feel they were hiding something big from her. Logically, anything they said could be betaken with a gain of salt. Even if they were telling the truth, what existing technology were they using?

Her heart, swayed by her time with her captors and her desire to pursue her dream urged her to say yes. Her mind kept urging caution.

"How about we let you see the La Platina before you decide." Takeshi offered.

"The La Platina?"

A slight gleam in his eye could be seen. "The prototype."

* * *

While Samantha talked with the Prestys', Taylor leaned over to Shoko. "I don't suppose we should let her know about the three test pilots in comas should we?" He whispered.

"That would be Presty's call." Shoko noted. "His project, his decision. I would be more comfortable with him disclosing that to her though."

"It's nice not to be in charge for once." Taylor said.

"She is one of our pilots." hissed Hassaway. "Our responsibility. YOUR responsibility."

"You were singing a different tune a few days ago." pointed out Taylor. "And I think it would be good for the girl to use a machine outside her comfort zone."

"You still have yet to discuss the terms of her contract…"

"Worry about that later." Taylor waved his younger sibling off. "Let her get settled in first. She has more to worry about than her pay."

Hassaway and Shoko shook their heads in bewilderment. What an idiot! Of course a soldier's salary, mercenary or commissioned, is of vital importance! But of course, Taylor probably had something else in mind.

"More importantly, we need to know how we are to proceed at Von Braun. How is my request for additional pilots? We can't proceed on the mission with our current force now the Illuminati know we are here." Shoko said

"I talked with HQ and they're sending two pilots from the _Defiant_. They'll be here in four days, give or take." Hassaway advised.

Taylor whistled. "I've already secured one on my own. She's a pilot from the Union who had to make an emergency landing after an engine malfunction."

"That makes seven." Shoko grumbled. "Seven pilots and one assault carrier against a whole planet… Well, we've had worse odds."

* * *

Samantha was quite confused as to why the _Kurogane_ required several hangars; the starboard hangar, the portside hangar and of course, the dorsal hangar. But here she was standing at the sole suit standing in against the far wall in the dorsal hangar.

She three things about it jumped out to her.

First it was beautiful. A curious mix of sleek and angular parts the with two long protruding thrusters in its torso, the machine looked as state of the art as they came. It was colored a shade of chrome and platinum, with red and black highlights in several areas. She blushed when she realized that if she really piloted it, she would really look like a "Silver Shooting Star".

Second, it had a 'Gundam' style head. For a moment, Samantha wondered the significance of a stylized head, nearly every G.U.N.D.A.M. was made for battlefield supremacy, then brushed it off. No way could it be for battle. One it had no in built weapons and two…

The third observation.

"Isn't it… kind of small?" Standing at just over fifteen meters in height, the La Platina was the smallest mobile suit she had ever seen. If it went toe to toe with the average machine, it would suffer a serious range disadvantage.

Takeshi laughed. "Don't judge the La Platina by its height. So what do you think?"

"Well it doesn't look like it can fight."

Takeshi laughed. "Don't judge a book by its cover. She can hold her own in a fight, but that's not what she was designed for."

"She?"

"The La Platina is equipped with a learning A.I. that was supplied from our military division." Takeshi explained he walked up to a laptop computer hooked up to the large machine and pressed a few buttons. "Why don't you come here and introduce yourself?"

A.I.? As in artificial intelligence?

Was he serious?

"Hello? Alice? You there?" Takeru broached.

"I'm here sir. How may I be of assistance?" A mechanical female voice sounded through the speakers of the laptop. Samantha looked on in awe as Takeru engaged in a conversation with the computerized voice.

"I have a new pilot candidate for the project and I'd like to introduce her to you."

The computer responded almost instantly. "The diagnostic procedure is yet incomplete. However it is ahead of schedule so it will not be a problem." Takeru motioned Samantha to move closer.

"Alice, this is Sam Douglas, Assault 4. Sam, allow me to introduce you to Alice. She"s an advanced Actual Intelligence created by cloning my wife's brain and networking it to the machine's super computer." Takeshi said smugly. "I can see you"re a bit disturbed by that fact Sam."

Of course she was disturbed. "I've never heard of such a thing before! Cloning a person's brain to create an A.I.? That's illegal!"

Takeshi laughed at Samantha's reaction. "Well if it makes you feel better, it was You who came up with the idea. It's her cloned brain in the machine."

"I owe my existence to Professor You. I suggest you keep that in mind before discussing the morality of that issue." Alice supplied. "Professor Takeshi, In addition to observing the exercise yesterday, I have extracted pilot Douglas' career record from the_Kurogane'_s database. It is unimpressive. I must raise my concerns of the notion that she is your chosen candidate."

Samantha gaped. The machine insulted her! "What was that?!"

"There is only one engagement on your record. As I have previously stated, I have analyzed and reviewed it from multiple angles and must conclude that Pilot Douglas has absolutely no skill in piloting a mobile suit what-so-ever. I fail to see how Pilot Douglas can be a test pilot…"

"Now, now, Alice. Sam is much better than she looks." Takeshi admonished the Actual Intelligence for being so discourteous.

"I sincerely hope that is the case." Alice declared before the screen went blank. The A.I. had left to complete it's diagnostic of the mobile suit's systems, leaving a shocked Samantha and slightly amused Takeshi in its wake.

Takeshi shook his head in amazement. "Sometimes I wonder how Alice and my wife can share the same DNA."

Samantha fought to regain her composure. "That was… illuminating."

"Well, I'm sure you need some pace to think before you tell me whether you want in or out of Project T.O., so I'll leave you now." Takeshi turned to leave. "Take as much time as you need!"

Standing alone before the imposing silver machine, Samantha gazed at the fifteen meter tall metal titan in apprehension. Space ghosts, Artificial Intelligences from cloned brains, psychic people, could her day get any weirder?

_Hey, are you dancing in the hallways yet? _

"I need a cheesecake."

* * *

_A/N _

_Well this was a rather long chapter. Updates will be coming in slower from here on out since I'm entering that busy time of the semester again. Ironically it just occurred to me that Samantha is turning out a lot more than Asuna Esmritt from Ecole du Ciel then I intended her to be. I'll take her a while to become more like Ibis, but that's a long time from now. _

_+ Artesia is a newtype of sizable power, hence why she could anchor herself to the world of the living, or more specifically the ship. This takes a considerable effort on her part though, so she cannot actively present herself to anybody other than another Newtype. _

_+ I've put down my understanding of Newtypes down in this chapter; however since they are such an odd bunch I'm open to suggestions as to how to improve this definition. _

_+ The La Platina literally is a modified V2 Gundam intended for space travel and non-military combat. Just think of it as the V2 with Ibis color scheme._

_+ Alice is obviously inspired by Halo's Cortana, a smart A.I. who was created on the imprint of Dr Hasley's brain. While her name implies she can go 'berserk', THIS Alice is only an advanced navigator program._

_---_

_Omake! _

It was only long after Sam Douglas had accepted her new position in the ATX team that she learned how close she really had come to being a stain on Shoko's Zankanto.

"I was really looking forward to putting on that red coat."

Samantha could not have predicted how her innocent comment would have affected the four people around the table. The effect was so profound, it was instantaneous.

Chris was so shocked he ejected the mouthful of breakfast cereal out onto the table, milk flying from both his mouth AND his nose. Lavinia let out a loud gasp and immediately hugged Samantha protectively, words of comfort and assurances spewing forth in droves. Ariel had stopped reading the chapter in her latest book (Self Help for parents Edition IV), not even caring it was now covered in cereal and warm spittle and was staring at Samantha like she had grown a second head.

And Shoko? The Unflappable Sword that Cleaves Evil?

She dropped her sword and her mouth was hanging open.

"W-What did I say?" Sam asked, mystified as to why she teammates had responded in such an adverse way.

"You… you wanted to put on a RED SHIRT?" Chris made out in between gasps, his supreme spit take more or less disregarded in the light of the more absurd event.

"You Fool! Are you completely mad you fool? Have you no sense of self preservation whatsoever?" Ariel joined.

"W-what's wrong with wearing a red shirt?" Sam stammered. She had no idea why Chris and Ariel were so taken aback and Lavinia was smoothing her. Heck, Shoko was practically staring at her like she was the bloody ghost of Christmas past!

"What wrong with wearing red?" Chris began, "What's wrong with wearing RED?"

"Err…"

"YOU FOOL! When you put on red, you become expendable! You lose any hope of survival! Your skills plummet, your luck goes out the window and then your mind suddenly becomes filled with foolish thoughts! You wear RED, you are DEAD."

She was so shaken by the ferocity and volume of Ariel's outburst that Sam had to get her to repeat his entire speech. She did so with gusto.

"…but there isn't any logic in that." Sam tried. "I mean, how can a wearing a red shit get you killed? It's just a red shirt."

"JUST A RED SHIRT!?" Ariel bellowed. "I've lost many foolish friends who foolishly decided it was a good idea to 'wear a foolish red shirt'! Don't be a fool and try to foolishly wear a foolish red shirt!"

"O…kay."

Deciding Ariel was going nowhere, Chris cut in. "Look Samantha, it's really easy to get actually. Say there is some cosmic power in the universe… say… god. Then say this cosmic power dictates that every poor sucker wearing red will get their asses kicked and a very horrible gruesome way. What's going to happen?"

"…everybody that wears red dies?"

"Yep."

Sam pushed Lavinia, who was now beginning to cry tears of empathy, off her before turning back to Chris "But that doesn't make any sense."

"It's like religion. It's just a thing you gotta accept. Like how the Earth revolves around the Sun, you just have to accept, 'wearing a red shirt will get you killed eventually'."

Naturally Sam was still dubious at his explanation. "It's a red coast, not a shirt. And I still not get your explanation. Give me ONE example where this has happened and maybe I'll believe you guys."

For the first time, Shoko spoke up.

"Sam, when I first met you I massacred a dozen DOM mobiles suits who were supposed to be the best pilots in the ZAFT navy. Yet the all fell to me like grass. Now I may be a powerful swordsman, but even then that should strike you as strange. How do you explain your survival in contrast to those DOM pilot's, if not for the fact you were wearing green instead of red?"

"Well…"

"Your predecessor was killed when she mistakenly sortied wearing a red sundress. I would also like to point out that NONE of our crewmen wear red shirts. Or jackets. Or coats." Shoko shrugged "It's a superstition thing that for some reason always seems to hold true. Like Chris said, just accept it."

Sam paused for a long moment.

"…alright. But I still am quite dubious about this thing."

She felt comforting pat on her shoulder. "Relax rookie, nobody believes this stuff at first." Chris said reassuringly.

"Just be thankful we got to you before you put that foolish thing on you fool." Ariel sighed as she went back to reading her now soiled book.

With that everybody in the ATX team went back to eating their breakfast in peace…

Suddenly, Sam was struck with a brainwave. "Wait... if red is such a bad omen, then how come Ariel's Zeta-Plus is painted in red and white?"

"Oh, that? In that case red just makes her three times faster."

"What?"

_---_

_Hence why Heine and Nicol were turned into hamburgers… they wore a red coats. There will be a follow up in a later chapter where Sam reunites with Alexis (who is a red coat). I wasn't too pleased with my previous Omake. This one should more than make u for it's shortcomings. This one also features Lavinia Rebirth from Soko no Strain, who will be introduced in the next chapter. _

_---_

Preview: "I hate it when Taylor recruits personnel like this. God, this place has gone to hell since I joined the squadron."


	10. Kotetsu no Beowulf I

Chapter 010 Kotestsu no Beowulf I 

_Equivalent of CE 72_

"Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!"

Lance Corporal Nathan Barton cursed repeatedly as he ran a gauntlet of infantry fire through the a city street littered with wrecked cars and rubble as he dated for the small alleyway across the road. His convoy had fallen prey to a textbook ambush while on patrol in the CBD.

That Gouf had popped out of a ruined skyscraper like the wrath of god and taken out their Mobile Suit escorts before he even registered on their sensors. This bastard was good, a three to one odds and he didn't even bat an eye.

The sergeant immediately ordered everyone to get the fuck out of their APC before the Gouf had began systematically dismantled their eight vehicle convoy in a hail of Vulcan fire. Then it was out of the frying pan, into the inferno. Infantry and sniper fire came in on all directions on the surviving Peacekeepers.

Caught out in the open, they were cut to ribbons before most of them could even make for cover. The Sergeant was the first to go, a well placed gauss rifle round from a skilled sniper emptying the balding man's brains on the pavement. The rest of his squad mates, some of which he had known for years, had met similar fates. No time to grieve, only survival.

Nathan wasn't surprised if he was the only one left alive.

Not that he would be much longer if this kept up. His radio was disrupted by some sort of Jamming, so no reinforces would be expected anytime soon. He was completely surrounded. It would be a miracle if he made it out of this. And to top it all off, he was down to his last two magazines for his carbine.

Thanking heavens this city used to be his hometown, had this been another situation this thought would be very disturbing to the twenty two year old infantryman, Nathan was able to navigate his way through the ruin with familiarity few could have.

There!

Aunt Maggie's shop. The sign had been blown off and all the window planes were shattered, but he could recognize the Ice Cream parlor anywhere. Jonathan remembered he had a small manhole in the basement that lead to the sewers that she never found the time to get rid off. It was his best chance. Perks of working part time at a shop, you learnt things about an establishment you would rather do without.

With one howl, Jonathan vaulted through the window, moments before a loud explosion tore through the streets. That wasn't the sound of a grenade detonation. That couldn't be good. His body tumbled through the dusty marble floor and impacted on the ice cream cooler at the counter. Coughing, Nathan tried to pull himself to his feet.

A sharp stinging sensation found a way up his tight. Nathan realized a glass shard had imbedded itself in the small space between the ceramic plates of his infantry armor, right in his knee joint too. "Bloody hell! This just isn't my day isn't it?" High on adrenaline and feeling the pressure, Nathan didn't even react to the pain, but concentrated on moving to the back the shop.

His ceramic armor plate was too heavy for his leg to handle, so he quickly discarded the breastplate to lighten the load. That did it. Limping, the infantry man had made it to the back of the counter when the fateful incident occurred.

A jingling sound came from behind him. How odd, even with all the glass blown out, somebody still bothered to use the front door, or at least step on the fallen titanium frame from where it had fallen. Nathan whirled around, carbine at the ready…

He hesitated. The boy didn't.

Nathan felt the heavy armor piercing round tear through his chest. He could feel his legs give out from under him and he fell to the floor. He could feel the blood spilling into his chest. He could feel his lips curve into a smile as he felt both genuine happiness and despair fill his being.

"So you were alive after all…"

A horrified gasp of a voice not his own then shuffling sound was heard, and suddenly Nathan's fading vision was filled with the vision of a young boy whose expressionless eyes were suddenly giving way to recognition then shock looked down on his collapsed form.

As a peacekeeper, Nathan had been schooled in the prospect of fighting child soldiers, children who had been forced to fight in conflicts by local warlords, insurgents, rebels or other such "interest groups", often against people such as himself.

In fact, Nathan had slain his fair share of these unfortunate children in the past. He regretted each and every kill. In fact, he would have pulled the trigger if not for one thing.

"…N…Nathan?" The young boy in a pilot suit stood in disbelief at the man whose life was bleeding out from under him. He had dismounted from his Gouf after landing outside the familiar ice cream parlor, sidearm in hand. Never did he expect it to come to this.

"H-Hey… squirt…" Nathan wanted to laugh at the irony of it all. "Y-Yo-You're looking well little…" Nathan coughed out blood, unable to finish the sentence.

Brother.

Nathan had tried to address his brother.

In the ten years of his life, Recruit Thomas Kristopher Barton had never guessed he would end up here. He was just a normal boy until the civil war erupted eleven months ago. Now he was a child soldier under the separatist faction, after the refugee convoy he was with brutally set upon by the separatist militia known as the White Fang.

Parents, uncles and aunts executed before his eyes, their bodies piled along with three dozen other corpses in a gruesome bonfire by the separatists. He was forced to witness this older sister violated then murdered, standing helplessly to the side unable to prevent her horrific demise. She was only fifteen. That scene would haunt Tom for the rest of his days.

Then he and the other children that were 'spared' were given a choice, fight under the banner of the White Fang or join that pile of smoldering bodies.

His cousin refused, they shot her and her body joined those of her parents. So did his best friend, except they bludgeoned the bespectacled kid to death. A more lengthily and, judging from the screams, painful process.

Tom did what was the obvious choice.

He didn't want to die. Was it cowardice that compelled him to continue living where his family and friends chose not to? Tom liked to have thought so. But everyday since that day, he was haunted by those memories.

That was six months ago. Since then his life was a whirling mix of drugs, alcohol, gambling, killing and death. The other kids soon forgot, or pretended to forget, moving into the daily routine of kill or be killed. Tom tried to do the same. But everyday, she would look at himself in the reflection of his cockpit's deactivated screen and see… what? Tom himself didn't know. He couldn't recognize the person who looked back at him in the refection.

He kept telling himself he had made the right choice then. His addiction to cigarettes and alcohol, his nightly visits to that girl in 2nd squad, the blood and killing, every thing…

Now he was here, standing over the bleeding body of his eldest brother, his only known surviving relative. The man whose name was the first word he had ever spoken. The man whom visited him in his school recital when their parents couldn't have found the time to. The man whom had risked life and limb to save him from drowning when he was six.

The man whom he had shot.

He didn't know why, but in a single instant, all the conditioning and hard drilling from the White Fang had fled the young boy's mind. Where other children would simply have brushed off shooting their own flesh and blood, the small stubborn part that was still Tom Barton awoke. The hard mobile suit pilot he had become had given way to the child he once was.

"I th-thought you we-re dead." Nathan"s words began to slur as life ebbed out of him. "It-It's good to see you a-alive. I wish yo-you'd have chosen a-ah dif-rent profession tho-." Darn, he really shouldn't have ditched his breastplate. Sods law, you ditch the breastplate; you get hit with a bullet in a very sensitive organ.

"Nathan, I'll be right back!" Tom said, panic ebbing into his voice. "There's a first aid kit in my Gouf…" A hand shot out and grabbed Tom by his wrist

"NO!" Nathan said forcefully. "D-Don't go back. D-don't go back to- t-them. T-there is-s a man-hole in the base-ment in the sewers. U-Use that to escape…"

For a moment, Tom remembered the burning smell, the tears in his eyes… "There is no escape from them." Tom wanted to say. Instead he nodded his head.

"T-take this." Nathan ripped his dog tags out from his neck and handed them to Tom. "F-Find Captain Taylor Y-Yashima of the _Kurogane_. Remember… U.C.E.'s _K-Kurogane_. T-Tell him you-you are my brother. I-I've shown him pictures, s-so he'll r-recog… you… He-He'll hel…"

Harder to talk. Tom's face was blurring. Nathan"s thoughts began to drift to happier times. "I-it'll all be okay… squirt… be a good kid, 'kay?"

Tom nodded as he knelt by his brother's side until he body stilled. Despite the grief him his heart, Tom could find it himself to shed even a single tear. Once he was sure his brother was gone, Tom quietly reached over to the prone body and pulled the pin from one of the five second grenade in his brother's belt before running like hell. One explosion later, Tom had fulfilled his last duty to his brother.

The soldiers often paraded the dead bodies of the 'imperialist scum' though the streets, an efficient means of psychological warfare. By blowing Nathan to small meaty chunks, Tom had spared his brother of such a fate. Tom made his way back to his Gouf, trying to push down the revulsion at his own actions.

He had to report in. They would be wondering where he had gone.

Tom tightened around the dog tags in his hand.

"This… isn't my fault."

CE 76

"Fuck!" Chris sword in disbelief as Ariel laid her full house down over his two pair.

"Perhaps you should play a different game, Beowulf." One of the engineers at a separate table chuckled. "Loveless never loses at cards."

"I won't stop until I win just one hand against her." Chris growled in indignation. Oh man, he used to win heaps of money until she came along. Now his winnings were in negative figures. He could let it drop, but his pride refused to let him drop the grudge.

Ariel shook her head as the hand was dealt by the dealer. "You already owe me three grand more then you own Heartily. This is pointless."

"I need another sortie." Chris grumbled.

The in addition to their usual wages, mercenary pilots who called the _Kurogane_ home also were paid for any kills they made while out on a mission as a bonus. Since their standard wages were notably lower than the pay of the other commissioned soldiers aboard the space arc, these soldiers of fortune often relied on these bonuses for their livelihood, especially since Marty tended to charge the pilots an arm and a leg for maintenance.

Or at least he charged Chris an arm and a leg.

The only three remaining pilots, discounting their newest member Sam Douglas, remaining on the ATX team at present were all mercenaries, the other pilots having either being transferred out or been killed in action until recently.

Still, they were going to get new pilots soon, with one arriving today. A pilot from the Union, which meant a Reasoner. Chris hoped she was at less of a chore to beat at this than his wing mate, or he might actually have to consider giving up cards. Chris didn't think his wallet could survive another Ariel Loveless.

---

"So this is our outpost at Von Braun? I expected it to be bigger." Taylor mused as the Kurogane sailed gracefully into the hidden underground dock. "So, I hear there is this really good restaurant in the Chinatown…"

Hassaway moaned. "We are here only for two days Commodore."

The communications officer, a reserved Indian woman by the name of Yasmina Adill spoke with the dock official over her comm. before turning to Taylor. "Von Braun welcomes us to their docks Commodore. They also wish to inform us Ensign Rebirth is currently waiting for us."

"Well, good, good." Taylor grinned. "Sooner we get done, sooner we can do more interesting things."

Hassaway repressed a shudder when his brother said "Interesting things".

---

Chris stumbled out of the poker room, his body feeling numb and his debt considerably heavier. Served him right. He was a real idiot sometimes. "I think I want to puke."

The worst thing was he foolishly challenged her to a rematch later in the afternoon. He really shouldn't have done that.

"Ah, Chris!" A cheerful voice called out to him as he leaned against the wall for support. "You don't look so good. Lose to Ariel again?"

"Of course I didn't. I just got abducted by space monsters and was experimented on." Chris sarcastically addressed Chief Engineer Nono Takaya, now over her headache thanks to Rumiko's treatment. Interestingly, Nono was the only person on the ship at present that was immune to the monstrous heath drink's 'side effects', So she used it to fix her massive radiation induced migraine.

It was generally agreed among the crew that the gyroid's taste buds were completely shot.

"Space monsters don't abduct humans." Nono joked as she wrapped her arm around the smaller boy's shoulder. "Come, I got something so show you!" The bubbly pink haired engineer began dragging the mercenary along.

"Space monsters don't abduct people she says… so says their queen." Chris remarked half jokingly. "Stop pulling on my arm so hard Nono, I could just follow you, you know.

If Nono heard his request, she took no notice of it. In fact, she sped up "Remember the weapon you kept asking me about? I think I've finally made some headway in developing it."

"The P.V.S.B.C. or the H.H.M.A.C.?"

"The P.V.S.B.C of course!" Nono remarked happily. "We need something that can fight Phase Shift, so I put off your H.H.M.A.C. until some other time. Marty's helping me get it hooked up…"

It was no secret that the Chief Engineering Officer of the _Kurogane_ also had a hobby of tinkering with other people's mecha in the hours she was not tending to the mighty warship's power generator and maintaining its engines and weapons. Often seen hanging around the hangar bay as the mechanics went about their business; her hobby of building new equipment was ever so helpful to the mechanics since she applied her vast knowledge of physics to everything she did.

While her team in engineering was fine with their boss indulging in her hobby, even supportive since the mechanics often returned them favors for 'borrowing' the highest ranking engineer on the ship, there was one group that did not approve of her putting together potentially dangerous equipment with an overzealous grease crew.

Namely, the flyboys who had to test her equipment out.

Chris' mouth slackened in horror. Not AGAIN. Chris forcefully pulled against Nono and made her stop moving as he glared at her. "You two are not installing some half baked gun onto MY Kampfer!"

Nono visibly pouted. "But it needs to be tested out…"

"The incident with the P.L.A.N.A.X is still fresh in my mind, thank you very much."

"But we're telling you about it first this time! We'll even do it in a controlled environment! It was your idea wasn't it?" Nono pleaded. She must really want to test out this new toy of hers.

"Maybe I just want some revenge." Chris maintained. "Besides, I thought my proposal was just an idea in case we ever ran low on parts…"

Chris trailed off when he saw those two big puppy dog clover shaped eyes pleading at him. Oh how he hated whenever she did this. "God dammit. Okay, let's see what your stupid gun looks like. Maybe I'll even like it."

"What the hell is that?!" Chris said in awe as he watched the huge six barreled weapon being attached to the hard point on the Kampfer's left back. "How'd you even figure out how to build this thing anyway?"

"Having a crap-load of Independence parts and two glasses of beer tends to enable you to see things a normal person would not." Marty explained.

"So… is it any good?"

"We were hoping you'd tell us after you've tried it. We expect it to have a hell of a recoil…"

"Seventh generation V.S.B.R.'s don't have recoils. They were designed that way for higher accuracy and firing rates. That's basic mobile suit knowledge. Are you sure you're okay Marty?"

Marty laughed nervously. "Nono and I used the third generation ones we had lying about in storage… So… yeah…" It would have a heck of a recoil. "I wouldn't be surprised if more then three seconds of sustained fire from this would blow the Kampfer of its feet."

"We still had those?" Chris shook his head. He should have guessed 'Independence parts' was referring to the four dismantled mobile suits rusting away in Cargo bay five. Chris could swear mold was growing in some places.

"I guess they were so old nobody could be bothered to buy them."

"Third Gen? Well crap. I hope the frame can hold up. Oh well, as long as you worked your magic on this sucker, I think I can dig."

Nono trotted up to them with a grin on her face. "It's all ready. Now all we have to do is set up some practice targets and…"

Attention, attention. ATX team please report to the Commodore's ready room. I repeat, ATX team, please report to the ready room." A collective groan echoed through the hangar.

"Must be about the new pilot." Chris mused, completely ignoring the reaction of the disappointed tech crew. "Well, I guess I'll have to try out you new toy sometime later."

Chris was on his way to the ready room when he encountered their new member wandering the corridors quite lost. He knew her because he recognized her right off the bat from the pictures an old wing mate once showed him.

"Lavinia? Lavinia Rebirth?"

A purple haired Ensign whirled around in surprise. In her late twenties, Lavinia Rebirth had retired from 'active service' to become a test pilot early in her career, citing psychological reasons for her transfer. She served aboard the _Libertad II_ while it conducted tests on new sub-light travel technologies. An old comrade of Chris, a young woman by the name of Lieutenant Commander Lotti Geller, had mentioned the purple haired pilot to him when they were out drinking a few months back. He never imagined he would ever meet her though, let alone this soon.

"Er, do I know you?" She hesitantly asked.

"Nope, but Lotti mentioned you. I'm Chris Heartily, perhaps you've heard of me?"

Lavinia nodded her head, trying to hide her surprise. "Ah, yes. The famous Beowulf. You're something of an urban legend in the Union. You're much younger then I imagined you to be though…" looking him up and down... with a strange delighted experssion.

Chris resisted the urge to shift uncomfortably. "I get that a lot. You look lost, is this your first time on a Space Ark?"

"Actually… yes!" Lavinia laughed nervously. "I have no idea where I am going or why. They just told me to come down here and look for a Captain Yashima."

Chris suddenly got that stinking suspicion in his stomach, the kind of sensation he once experienced when he was much younger and looking for work.

"That would be the Commodore. You have no idea why you are here do you?"

Lavinia nodded "All they told me was to sit tight and wait for orders."

Uh Oh.

"That irresponsible idiot." Chris snorted. "Are you even aware you're being transferred into U.C.E.'s SRT division?"

Lavina's blank stare told him all he needed to know. "Eh?"

"Oh well, you can punch him when I take you to him."

---

Safe to say, Lavinia had received no prior noticed of her new post at all. Her protests clearly displayed her distress. Chris sat in one side of the room beside Shoko and Ariel as their newest member slammed her fists before their unflappable leader.

"But this is impossible!" Lavinia cried in desperation. "Sara wouldn't let me go so easily! And I'm a test pilot, not some special forces…"

"Ah, but that's where you are mistaken my good lady." Taylor responded. "I talked with Captain Werec herself and she personally entrusted me with your talents." He handed a one page document to her with that creepy smile of his. "She even sent you a letter."

Lavinia snatched the document up and went strait to the signature at the bottom of the page, her eyes widening in horror. "No… Sara… why!? Was I not good enough for you?"

Chris shook his head when he saw the girl begin to tear at the sight of the letter. "Oh crap, not another weird one," he muttered.

"I never thought you were one to be homophobic." Ariel whispered.

"No, I think she's Bi." Chris recalled the stories Lotti had recited to him with growing resignation. Oh dear, the ATX team were destined to be as bad as the A-Numbers at this rate. "And unless I'm mistaken, Sara Werec is straight. Besides, I think her problem lies somewhere else."

"Any-whoo, Captain Werec assured me your skills as a Reasoner were top notch," Talyor continued on, oblivious to the fact the purple haired woman was on the verge of bawling like a newborn on the floor. "Moreover this is only a temporary transfer. You do this one mission for us and you'll be back on the _Libertad_ before you know it."

"But I'm part of the Union! U.C.E. has no rights with Union soldiers!"

"Article five of the U.C.E. charter." Taylor whistled. "Besides, we have plenty of Reasoners since the Union joined the Alliance."

"I'm not on the active roster!"

"Well you've just been reactivated."

It went back and forth like this for roughly a quarter of an hour. Of course, Taylor shot down every protest she raised. It was almost sad to see it unfold. For an idiot, Taylor was utterly ruthless.

Eventually she gave in. "And how long is this mission?" she asked hesitantly.

Talyor counted it off with his fingers. "Anywhere from ten weeks to six years. Don't worry, Libertad's in warp half the time…"

"SIX YEARS!?" Lavinia was obviously shocked at those words

"Well it is a matter of national security in hostile..."

"Nooooooo!" Lavinia wailed sorrowfully. "I'll be an old granny when I see Sara and Emily again!" The three senior members of the ATX team sighed simultaneously. Yep, another weird one. Of course, this thought was based on the fact that the three pilots conveniently forgot they themselves were not the best example of normalcy themselves.

There was a whoosh, and the door to the cabin opened. "Sorry sir, I was lost again and…"

Sam Douglas stepped in and was greeted with the odd sight of a grown woman in a green military uniform she had never encountered before rolling around the floor and crying like a baby. "Wha-what?"

Lavinia briefly paused in her tantrum and looked at the newcomer. A look of disbelief settled on her face before it shifted into the most evilly seductive grin, or in Chris' opinion, the most horrifying one he has ever seen before in his entire career.

"Wow, you're cute!"

Sam opened her mouth in shock while Chris and Ariel looked at Shoko and Taylor in confusion. Talyor cleared his throat and answered. "Ahem... Well, Miss Douglas has a _**slightly**_ passing resemblance to Captain Werec in her academy days…"

Chris felt like banging his head against the wall. As the one of the two longest serving SRT members on the ATX team, Chris had this to say;

"Damn, this place has gone to hell since I joined the squadron."

CE 73

Tom downed another jug of beer. He was in a real pinch. His earnings were in the red, his mech was totaled and somebody had the nerve to put a bounty on his head. Well thankfully it was a rather small one, but he knew of at least one person who would use that as an excuse to attack him in broad daylight.

"I should never have left the White Fang." He took a drag out of his death stick before slamming his jug on the counter to signal a refill.

During the decisive defeat the White Fang suffered at the hands of the Loyalists" elite Skull Squadron at the Battle of Stenbuck, Tom used the confusion that had claimed the ranks of the rebels to make good his escape. Despite being outnumbered six to one, the Skulls had shattered the White Fang's entire defensive line in moments.

Tom knew that was it for the White Fang. With over a third of their forces committed to that single battle, it was a crushing blow to their dwindling forces. It was time to jump ship.

Having escaped the ones who had ripped his family and childhood from him, Tom went on to work for a local warlord who was eager to carve out his kingdom from the ashes of Antillia. It was good for about two weeks, before the Loyalists and "Peace keepers" adopted a more aggressive stance and came down on every aspiring warlord with extreme prejudice.

Tom was lucky to have made it out alive, breaking ranks to save his own skin.

Now he was stuck without work, his mauled childhood robbing him any chance of having a normal life. "One third of humanity is at war, and I still can't find a willing employer."

Of course, he sold out most of his old employers to gain new ones, but that was beside the point.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the remnants of the White Fang went a put a bounty on his head for desertion. He was a bleeding merc! What the fuck?!

The old smoky bar he was in reminded him of the "old western" shows Nathan used to watch. In those movies, there was always one loser who was slouched over the counter piss drunk. Tom was feeling an awful lot like that loser right now. Fingering the double barreled shotgun he had at his side, Tom was grateful that his persuasion methods had convinced the bartender he was old enough to drink beer.

It wouldn't be long before he would be forced to give up this luxury. His Gouf? In pieces. Is money? In the red. His bounty? Well, damn. "If I go out further into the rim, I think I can buy myself a few more weeks." Tom mused. What the hell did he do to deserve this shit.

"Hello?" A quiet dainty voice called out to him. Tom arched his head to see a purple haired girl in her late teens looking at him. He was about to write her off until he noticed she wore a very interesting jacket. A white jacket with the sword, gun and shield emblem emblazoned on the upper sleeve.

Couldn't be…

"Would your name be Thomas Kristopher Barton?" She asked sweetly.

"What the hell does a lady like you want with me?" Tom fingered is shotgun carefully.

"I guess you are." She bowed. "Very sorry about this."

Slightly drunk and completely taken off guard by the young girl's quiet demeanor, Tom was unable to see it coming. "Sorry about wha-" Suddenly somebody beaned Tom on the back of his head, and the young mercenary was unconscious before his body hit the floor.

"Smoking is bad." Celvice said as she pried the cigarette out of Tom's hands while her partner paid off the barkeep with a healthy wad of green paper.

"I think you hit him too hard, Lansfield-san." Celvice said she crouched next to the prone body who was beginning to froth at the mouth.

Aries shrugged. "Let's get him back to the _Phantom_." With that, the two members of the ATX team hauled the boy out of the bar, ignoring the surprised and awed stares of the other patrons.

As the froth of the unconscious Barton smeared his jacket, Assault-1 grimaced.

"I hate it when Taylor recruits personnel like this. God, this place has gone to hell since I joined the squadron."

_A/N Wow, I'm drabbling in dangerous material here, hence the Mature Themes warning on the summary. I sure hope I didn't offend anybody here. Anyway, I'm beginning to integrate the crossovers in this chapter. This should be no more apparent than Lavina and Nono, who are from entirely different series._

_+ I thought it would be more interesting if Lavinia was a maniac Bi, instead of just a raging homosexual. This way nobody on the ship is safe._

_+ One of Nono's nicknames is the "Queen of the Space Monsters". Since being stranded on the _Kurogane_, she has been putting her vast technological knowledge to good use while researching a way to get back home._

_+ P.V.S.B.C is really a V.S.B.R. that can fire really, really rapidly because it has six barrels. Unlike normal V.S.B.R.s, it cannot shift the speed of its beams; in fact it has a preset speed already in place determined by its barrels. Three for high damage slow speed beams, three for shield piercing high speed. It chews through its energy cells like a mother though. Think of it as six V.S.B.R.s molded into one._

_+ Much like Nono, Lavinia has aged quite a bit since we last saw her in Soukou no Strain. She's mellowed out a bit now, but still acts funny because she feels like it._

_+ Am I the only one who thinks Sara Werec's haircut resembles Ibis a bit?_

Preview:

What he found was the metal grating of an open air vent lying on the floor and gradually fading clanging sounds coming from the darkness of the ventilation shafts. "Oh shit."


End file.
